WHO expressed satisfaction with and confidence in the preventive and control ability of the health system against the infectious disease in comparatively developed areas of the country.

Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative in China, said these included South China's Guangdong Province and Beijing.

But he was concerned about the ability of provinces in western China, which are much poorer, to respond promptly and effectively to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Efforts to help poorer people, especially farmers in rural areas, must be stepped up because they may have great difficulty in paying for medical treatment if infected, said WHO expert James Maguire. He was part of a team that has just finished a four-day investigation in Beijing.

Related departments under the State Council are currently drafting a regulation on the operation of the mechanism and strengthening surveillance and reporting of public health accidents, said a Ministry of Health official, who declined to be named.

The WHO team of experts in Beijing have visited military hospitals to assess SARS cases, which have been the source of numerous rumours concerning the magnitude of the outbreak of the disease.

Rumours that the real number of SARS cases in Beijing may be more than officially reported are mainly caused by the large number of people under medical observation, Maguire said. Few of these patients will be confirmed as having SARS.

Beijing yesterday denied reports that several primary and middle schools in the city have stopped classes because of SARS.

"No confirmed SARS case has been found at any Beijing school so far," Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau Guo Jiyong told China Daily.

His words came after reports that several primary schools and some buildings of Beijing-based universities have been closed after SARS cases were found among students.

"There is a student in our school who has stopped going to school because his grandfather was suspected of having SARS," a staff member with one primary school said on condition of anonymity.

He admitted other students were staying at home for health concern, but the school had not begun "suspending classes."

A special lecture on SARS was held yesterday for employees in more than 100 foreign-funded enterprises in the Chinese capital. Participants were given handbooks on SARS prevention and related guide books in both Chinese and English which introduce the disease and give hotline telephone numbers.

Showing that SARS has affected China's tourism industry, many agencies have turned to promoting short-distance tours rather than overseas trips during the coming May Day holidays.

(China Daily April 17, 2003)