The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health jointly issued a notice on Tuesday promising that local authorities will pay medical charges for SARS patients from rural areas and impoverished urban families.

According to the directive, the central government will give subsidies to local governments of economically constrained western provinces and autonomous regions in an attempt to share the burden of SARS treatment cost.

The two ministries also urged intensified supervision of the epidemic in the country's vast rural areas, saying that stringent measures would be taken to identify and control the SARS epidemic in the countryside.

Meanwhile, medical organizations at all levels would be required to accept SARS patients from rural areas without delay.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)