Tung told the media after returning from the special Chinese-ASEAN leaders' meeting against SARS that the Central government is sending to Hong Kong the first shipment of 400,000 protective suits, 200,000 goggles and one million protective masks with quality guaranteed by a special committee.

"All these have bespoken of the incomparable care of Chinese government towards Hong Kong.

"The Chinese leaders are very caring towards the Hong Kong people, and their care and support have encouraged us to face the difficulty," he said.

Such medical supplies were immediately pledged for Hong Kong after he recently relayed the concern to the Central government that there may be a shortage of medical supplies here, he said.

"Similarly, I have expressed the hope that if the situation calls for extra medical staff urgently, the Central government said it will also give support," he said.

Commenting on the Hong Kong government's continuous fight against the disease, Tung said it is not acceptable that everyday there are at least several medical workers in Hong Kong getting infected, and he vowed to fight the disease down to the zero number of case.

As for the declining number of daily confirmed cases of infection, he remarked "Yes, the number is stabilizing at a rather lower level. But I don't think that's good enough. We need to move the number further down, and this is my determination, the determination of the whole government and the determination of the community to do so. A combination of all these things will get us going again.

"We should never be complacent because of this (the downward trend)," he added.

He said the meeting unanimously agreed that the way to contain the spread of the disease is to strengthen quarantine measures at border control points.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)