SARS Cases in China Up to 2,000

Now that the Chinese government puts the capital city of Beijing on the danger zone list related to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, many Koreans living there including young students and families of businesspeople are rushing to return home.

˝I understand that about a half of Korean students going to college in Beijing have decided to return to Korea after getting phone calls from their worrying parents,˝ said Kim Hyun-woo, 27-year-old man in his master`s degree course in Beijing University, where some classes have shut down.

˝Since the school said that it would give some of tuitions back, many Korean students have made up their mind to go home,˝ said 31-year-old Jang Moon-sun studying language in Beijing University.

Students studying in Tianjin, which was earlier believed to be relatively safe but reported two SARS deaths on April 21, have also begun to leave the city. ˝Students who have enrolled in colleges or graduate schools have yet to decide their minds, but most students attending language courses are looking for flights back to Korea.˝

The Korean Embassy to China began on April 21 to urge students to leave if schools allow.

˝As of April 21, we are fully booked for the whole week and people are keep calling for reservation,˝ said Beijing branch offices of Korean Airline and Asiana Airline. ˝It is estimated that some 1,000 students have bought their tickets to go home.˝

Families of businesspeople also began to move out. Korea Export Import Bank decided last week to send families of their employees back to Korea, and SK, LG and KT have also instructed heads of local branches to develop evacuation plans.

Many people, in fact, send their families back to Korea regardless of company-level decisions. ˝The local middle school our children go to says that they will allow students to skip classes, so I have decided to arrange flights back to Korea for my family,˝ said an official at a large business currently working at the Beijing Branch.

The Korean Embassy to China is closely watching other countries` moves. The U.S. Embassy already evacuated non-core staff and all the families of embassy employees, and the Japanese Embassy also suspended individual Visa interviews. The Canadian Embassy is letting a half of its employees work at home and suspended immigration services.

Meantime, the Chinese Health Department announced on the day that 92 people were killed and 2,001 infected as of April 21. In Beijing alone, 25 were killed and 482 infected, up 7 and 143 respectively from the report by the health authorities on April 20.

The deadly virus is spreading fast from crowded big cities into rural areas where health facilities are in bad shape such as Sanshi, Gansu, Jirin, Ryaoning, Inner Mongolia self-governing area and Shinjiang, putting Chinese health authorities on full alert.

Yoo-Sung Hwang yshwang@donga.com