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| Chinese premier urges honesty over SARS |
| CCTV.COM 2003-04-19 13:04:21 |
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Premier Wen Jiabao has urged governments at various levels and all localities to report and release the situation of the SARS accurately, timely and honestly, forbidding the withholding of information to delay its release.
Anyone who covers up SARS cases or delays the release of information will be harshly punished as this matter concerns the people's health and safety, said the premier.
Wen made the call Friday during a tour to Beijing's kindergartens and schools to inspect the SARS prevention and treatment measures.
According to Wen, the central government has already sent supervision teams to the infected areas to monitor local prevention work.
Talking with students and teachers at Beijing University of Aerospace and Aeronautics, Wen said the institution should adopt pertinent and powerful measures to enhance the effective prevention work on the campus and spread the SARS prevention information.
Wen urged local governments and related authorities to give more guidance to schools and help them solve practical questions in time.
The Ministry of Health also announced that no medical institution in China can refuse to admit SARS patients and SARS suspects, otherwise the institution and its staff will face legal proceedings.
In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 30 new SARS patients were admitted to hospitals, while 50 were discharged, according to a statement jointly issued by the Department of Health and the hospital authority of Hong Kong.
Four patients died in hospitals, bringing the total number of SARS－related deaths to 69 in Hong Kong.
A total of 322 patients have recovered from SARS and have been discharged from public hospitals. Most of the patients currently in hospital are showing positive responses to the new treatment arrangements. Intensive care units are currently treating 120 patients.
Also on Friday, Michael Martin, the counselor with the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, said that a Canadian visitor to Beijing, who was suspected to have been infected with SARS, has recovered and was discharged from Beijing Ditan Hospital last Friday and returned to Canada Tuesday.
According to Martin, the victim was not confirmed as a SARS patient by his doctor. However, Xiang Xiaopei, vice－president of Ditan Hospital said Thursday that the Canadian was infected with SARS.
On the Chinese mainland, the accumulative number of SARS cases rose to 1,482 after 25 new cases were reported Thursday, of which six were in Guangdong Province, south China, 17 in Shanxi Province, in the north, one in Shanghai and one in Henan Province, central China.
Meanwhile, 19 patients in Guangdong were discharged from hospital, bringing the total recoveries to 1,126.
In order to prevent further spread of the disease, the Guangdong quarantine authority has introduced a measure requiring everyone arriving in the province to have a health certificate proving they do not have SARS, according to China Daily.
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Editor: Yang Feiyang Source:Xinhua
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