Officials in Hong Kong said Friday they may offer cash rewards to people who turn in neighbours who spit or litter in an effort to improve hygiene, after economists predicted the SARS outbreak would cut the territory's economic growth in half.
Canada's largest city, Toronto, saw a sharp jump in SARS infections in its latest outbreak after it redefined what constitutes a case to meet international standards. Medical officials on Friday announced the death of one more SARS patient, bringing the total to 30 in the Toronto area.
But Taiwan — which has the third-highest number of SARS deaths and infections worldwide — reported its lowest daily increase in cases in three weeks. That appeared to bolster claims by Taiwanese officials that severe acute respiratory syndrome is fading on the island.
The global death toll Friday rose to at least 756, with one new fatality reported in China, another in Hong Kong and the death in Toronto. More than 8,300 people have been sickened, with the vast majority in Asia, although the region's crisis appears to be easing.
The World Health Organization removed Singapore from its list of countries affected by the SARS virus, saying it was 20 days — twice the virus' maximum incubation period — since the last locally acquired case was placed in isolation.
"From the start, Singapore's handling of its SARS outbreak has been exemplary," said David Heymann, executive director for communicable diseases at WHO. "This is an inspiring victory that should make all of us optimistic that SARS can be contained everywhere."
Still, Singapore's incoming health minister urged vigilance to avoid a Toronto-style SARS relapse.
"I think Toronto's new outbreak is a great reminder to everyone," Khaw Boon Wan told reporters. "I'm reading reports from Toronto saying that the reason for this new outbreak is that they let their guard down too soon."
Toronto's cluster of new cases emerged last week in a harsh blow to a health-care system that appeared to have brought an initial SARS outbreak in March and April under control. As of Friday, health officials have told about 7,850 people to quarantine themselves because of possible exposure.
Doctors initially reported 11 cases in the renewed outbreak, but that number was tripled Thursday to 33 after Ontario authorities broadened Health Canada's definition of what constitutes a "probable case" to meet standards declared by the WHO.
As of Friday, there were 43 probable cases and 13 suspect cases of SARS.
Officials in China have been accused of failing to adequately respond to SARS when it was first discovered in the southern province of Guangdong, and of attempting to cover it up.
"The Chinese government did not conceal the truth," Gao Qiang, the executive deputy health minister, said Friday. He said officials lacked information early on to give a true picture of the scale of the epidemic.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, where world leaders were gathering to celebrate the city's tricentennial, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Who Jin Tao. Officials said the WHO told Mr. Chrétien that there are now eight to nine cases of SARS emerging daily in China, down from 200. The officials said Mr. Chrétien and WHO agreed on the need to exchange more information on the disease.
SARS has killed 328 people on China's mainland and infected more than 5,300. The first known case occurred in Guangdong in November, and as late as January, health officials there denied rumours of an outbreak of a deadly new disease.
China announced Friday it will relax SARS-related travel restrictions and allow limited domestic tourism to resume in June and group tours from overseas to resume in July.
In Taiwan, where SARS has peaked later than in other Asian locations, officials reported only seven new SARS cases on Friday and said no medical workers have caught the virus in the past 10 days in hospitals — the primary source of past infections.
Officials in Hong Kong, which is ranked second behind China in the number of cases and deaths worldwide, said they may offer rewards to people who report hygiene violations such as spitting and littering. The territory reported four new infections Friday.
Housing Department spokeswoman Esme Lau said it was unclear how much would be paid for tip-offs, because the idea is still in the conceptual stage.
Critics fear such a system could lead to bad blood among neighbours.
The government announced Friday that the SARS crisis is expected to cut Hong Kong's economic growth in half this year, to 1.5 per cent.
Consumer spending collapsed and other industries ranging from airlines to hotels and restaurants have been devastated, the government said.
Senior U.S. and Asian officials have drafted guidelines to revive business and tourism in SARS-affected countries ahead of a meeting of their trade ministers in Thailand next week, a U.S. delegate said Friday.
The plan focuses on improving SARS screening and prevention while restoring tourist and business confidence, said C. Lawrence Greenwood, U.S. ambassador to the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, or APEC.
The plan is expected to be endorsed by the trade ministers in the northeastern Thai town of Khon Kaen on Monday and Tuesday.
Also in Hong Kong, a man said Friday that he has asked coroners to investigate the SARS death of his mother, alleging she was not treated for the disease even though she showed symptoms of it and he asked doctors to treat his mother as a SARS case.
Ng Yuet-chun, 78, died in a hospital last Sunday, but officials said they could not confirm she had SARS until the following Thursday, when test results came back showing she had been infected by the coronavirus believed to cause the disease.
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