Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited Tianjin Municipality and Guangdong Province separately to boost local government efforts in combating severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has claimed 170 lives.

The Chinese mainland reported 187 new SARS cases and 11 deaths in the 24 hours to 10 am Thursday, the Ministry of Health announced.

The total number of SARS cases on the Chinese mainland rose to 3,638 while 244 new suspected SARS cases were reported Thursday.

Beijing reported 122 new SARS cases and seven deaths from the disease, the ministry said.

President Hu and Premier Wen urged local officials to understand the difficulty in fighting SARS and use scientific methods to defeat the disease.

They visited local communities, universities, supermarkets, hospitals, construction sites and scientific research institutes in Tianjin and Guangzhou to assess efforts to tackle the disease.

The key to defeating the epidemic lies in bringing into play the important role of science and technology, President Hu Jintao said. Successful results achieved during the study of the SARS virus should be brought into use as early as possible, he added.

(China Daily, May 2, 2003)