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| WHO drops SARS travel warning on Chinese regions |
| CCTV.COM 2003-06-14 15:06:59 |
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The World Health Organization has dropped some parts of China from its list of countries under the SARS travel warning. A WHO spokesman said on Friday that the WHO is removing its recommendation to postpone all but essential travel to Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Tianjin.
On Friday, China reported another day without any new confirmed SARS cases and no deaths. The only new suspected case was found in south China's Guangdong Province.
According to the World Health Organization, information about the decline of SARS outbreak in the four regions has been carefully reviewed by WHO. It suggests that SARS is no longer a potential threat to international travelers to these regions.
The criteria for lifting the travel advisory are: The number of cases currently treated in hospitals must be fewer than 60, the number of new patients must be fewer than five for three successive days, and there must be no local transmission or exporting of cases to other regions.
At the good news, China's tourism authority said they welcomed the lifting of travel advisory.
Sun Gang, deputy director of the National Tourism Administration, said, "After the lifting of the travel advisory on Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong SAR on May 23, the WHO has now also dropped Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Tianjin from its list of travel warning. This suggests that the WHO recognizes China's achievements in the fight against SARS. It is also encouraging for China's travel industry. At present, only Beijing is in the WHO's list of SARS travel warning, and we hope it will be soon lifted since the capital has basically no new SARS cases now. "
He also said that although SARS has had a negative impact on the country's travel industry, China remains one of the safest travel destinations in the world.
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Editor: Yang Feiyang CCTV.com
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