Beijing, 4,000 Patients Suspected of SARS in Isolation

Chinese health authorities estimate that it will take at least a couple of weeks to analyze the possibility of decreasing the spread of SARS in Beijing. As fears of SARS grow, throngs of citizens wanting to escape Beijing are lining up at train stations and the airport.

As the number of SARS infected cases increases at around 100 a day after the official announcement on March 20, Beijing City is considering closing Haidian, Udaokuoo, and Zhongguanchun area.

Universities such as Beijing University, which are densely located in Udaokuoo and a group of people in a building in Zhongguanchun located adjacent to Udaokuoo were recently reported to have been infected with SARS.

The authorities decided on Thursday to close a hospital near Beijing University as well as Ditan hospital, which has been treating SARS patients. They will establish SARS patient treatment facilities near Shaotangsan in Changping as soon as possible. The decision for closing the hospital near Beijing University was made after 19 patients were found to be infected with SARS. Prisons in Beijing were also quarantined, and authorities prohibited staff of leaving the prison, even for family visits.

Authorities ordered 4,000 people who contracted SARS to stay home, hence they are now virtually prisoners in their own homes.

In line with these measures, authorities also ordered high school and university students and teachers who do not have hospital permits, to stay in the city for the Labor Day holidays, which start from May 1.

The Chinese Ministry of Health reported that 80% (89 people) of the 125 additional SARS infected patients are Beijing residents and all of the 4 additional deaths occurred in the city. There are still more people in Guangdong who are infected or who have died from SARS. The total number of those infected in Guangdong is 1359 with 49 people dying. In Beijing, those infected number 774 with 39 deaths. The number of infections or deaths from SARS has seen an unprecedented increase considering there were only 339 infections and 18 deaths according an announcement on March 20.

Authorities believe that based on integrating expert views, SARS cases in Beijing will reach an apex this coming week and it will take at least two more weeks to determine whether SARS can be contained. The decision to temporarily close elementary and secondary schools for 2 weeks was made based on this forecast.

Although Shanghai officially announced that there are only 2 SARS infected patients in Shanghai, there are quite a large number of infected patients and yet the city authorities are concealing it as the government confidential information, reported the Time magazine on March 25. The Time argued that it just does not make a sense that the largest economic city of China which has 16 million population and a great floating population adjacent to Guangdongshen which is the origin of SARS has such a low number of SARS patients.

Quoting an aid of deputy-mayor, the Time reported that the central government ordered Shanghai officials to promote Shanghai as “a city without SARS”as it worried about withdrawal of foreign investors.

In addition the Time viewed that Chinese President Jiang Zemin is behind the scenes of concealing the exact figure.

“It is a hard to believe that there are only 2 SARS patients in Shanghai, the government must issue a warning in Shanghai,” criticized Dr. Wolfgang Peizer, an official of The World Health Organization.

Yoo-Sung Hwang yshwang@donga.com