A senior official ruled out Friday any "large escape" of college
students in Beijing caused by the panic over severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Cai Fuchao, director of the publicity department of the Beijing
Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made the
remarks at a press conference in Beijing.
Currently, 39 out of the 670,000 college students in the Chinese
capital were confirmed SARS patients, he said.
According to Cai, students who applied to return hometown should
meet following criteria:
- Passing medical examination and no such symptoms as fever;
- Destination not labeled as SARS-infected area;
- Destination not in rural area;
- Destination not in western region.
College authorities were required to keep close contacts with those
already leaving Beijing, Cai said.
When asked about the situation in rural areas, Cai said there was
no single rural resident confirmed to be infected by severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Beijing so far.
Several millions of people live in Beijing's rural areas. Officials
at all levels in rural Beijing were required to take full measures
for ensuring the health of residents in their administrative areas,
he said.
Speaking of Xiaotangshan Hospital, a field hospital built in eight
days, Cai said it meets full anti-epidemic sanitary criteria.
According to him, patients' wards were isolated from one another.
And the living areas of doctors and nurses are isolated from that
of the patients.
Patients' waste is collected by professional anti-epidemic
specialists every day, he said.
Liang Wannian, deputy director of Beijing Health Bureau, also
attended the press conference. He said Beijing's SARS epidemic "was
in a stable period with the upward trend contained."
He
admitted that it is still hard to predict when SARS comes to low
epidemic. As time goes by, he said, a group-immunity is expected to
develop among people, thus forming an immunity-shield for the
vulnerable.
Liang, also an epidemiologist, said it is still an urgent job to
cut off infection source and routes and strengthen protection of
the vulnerable people.
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2003)