Liu told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office Thursday that, to date, the country has identified a limited number of SARS cases in a few regions in rural areas.

Official figures show that during the period from April 26 to May 12, 155 SARS cases were reported in rural areas in 85 counties of 15 provinces and autonomous regions, accounting for roughly 6 percent of the country's total in the period.

The figures were revised later as the country explored more effective channels for detecting and reporting SARS cases in rural areas, Liu added.

He also revealed that China would take measures to ensure an adequate number of medical workers treating SARS in rural areas, including transferring doctors from more affluent provinces to economically underdeveloped provinces, transferring doctors from military hospital divisions and opening training programs for medical workers at the county level.

A team of doctors was sent to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Wednesday from Jiangsu Province to help control SARS, Liu said.

According to the reports from China's ministries of agriculture and health, most of China's farmers working in urban areas have remained in their work places, which is considered crucial to curbing the spread of the contagious disease to China's rural areas.

Liu said China now has about 100 million farmers working in urban areas, of whom between 36 and 40 million work in provinces other than their places of birth. A recent survey showed that, to date, about 8 million migrant workers have returned home, half as part of the normal seasonal migration and half for reasons related to SARS.

He said the Chinese government is taking active measures to help families of migrant workers with the upcoming summer harvest.

According to Liu, farmers working in cities will receive free treatment if they are infected with SARS. Urban employers are not allowed to fire farmers during the SARS crisis, and the government will provide the enterprises concerned with tax breaks and other kinds of financial aid.

Liu noted that the current SARS situation in China's rural areas proves the measures China has taken are effective.

Qi Xiaoqiu, director of the disease control department of the Ministry of Health, also pledged that China is absolutely capable of containing SARS due to the three-level medical network at the county, town, and village levels and the 1 million medical workers in rural areas.

Chinese rural medical workers have successfully blocked the spread of several epidemics in the past, Qi stressed.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2003)