The SARS Taskforce set up by the government of Macao to coordinate preventive actions against the disease decided Thursday on tougher measures as tourist arrivals are expected to rise over the three-day Easter Holiday.

Although tourist arrivals are foreseen to be much lower than the usual holiday season, the taskforce decided to hold a simulation of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in efforts to enhance the coordination among government departments.

The taskforce will take a number of new measures in accordance with advices given by the World Health Organization (WHO), such as improvement of medical facilities and patients handling process in hospitals, more active monitoring on tourists arrivals and better protection for frontier personnel.

The Macao government has dealt with the SARS prevention and control with a high transparency, which has been confirmed by WHO experts. So far, no case of SARS infection is found in Macao.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2003)