CHINA: The Beijing city government is to quarantine people and buildings infected, or suspected of being infected, with SARS, the official Xinhua news agency said last night as cases in the city continue to increase. Earlier there were indications of panic among its citizens.
The government will also take "compulsory measures" to deal with those who refuse to co-operate with the measures, Xinhua said. Hotels, hospitals, schools and residential buildings would be quarantined if cases of the deadly flu-like virus were found there.
Beijing, a city of 14 million, has reported almost 700 SARS cases and 35 deaths out of 106 in China. Until last week, officials had admitted to only 37 cases in the city. Some people tried to escape the city yesterday and others stocked up on basic groceries fearing that the authorities will quarantine the city.
Hysteria over SARS grew in the capital yesterday as some people tried to escape the city, and others stocked up on basic groceries fearing that the authorities will quarantine the city.
Many queued at railway stations and airports to leave before a possible government ban on all travel in or out of a city, where the death toll has kept rising.
"Migrant workers and student are forbidden to leave, and outsiders are already being stopped from entering the city," explained Zhao Wenren, a taxi driver. "Now you can still leave, but later people say you won't be allowed back in."
People could be seen around the city emptying supermarket shelves and carting as much home as possible before the start of a three-day holiday on May 1st.
Some feared that peasants will no longer be able to transport fresh vegetables, meat and fish into the city. Others said they had heard all shops would be closed and sanitised.
According to some rumours, the government may be preparing to halt domestic flights and introduce tight controls on incoming foreign passengers. There is also talk of roadblocks around the city.
In Xian (39), a New Zealand tourist, was stopped and hospitalised after he was detected boarding an airline with a high fever on Monday evening. Beijing's capital airport has installed heat sensors to try to identify sick passengers.
Across the city, squads of sanitation workers in masks and rubber gloves were visible spraying disinfectant as the new mayor, Wang Qishan, took charge after his predecessor, Wang Xuenong, was fired on Sunday.
He ordered 1,000 hospital beds to be prepared, and is buying 1,000 artificial respirators, 30 more ambulances and 500,000 protective medical suits for confirmed SARS patients, an indication that medical authorities are preparing for the worst.
China, which with 2,158 has around half the world's SARS cases, is now on the point of seeing an explosion in reported cases. The first cases are being reported in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Jiangsu and Guizhou provinces
Some local governments, like that in Inner Mongolia, have ordered that under no circumstances must any patient be turned away even if they cannot afford hospital medical fees.
The Inner Mongolia Medical College now has 42 confirmed or suspected cases of SARS, but reports said hospitals had been turning away anyone who could not pay a hefty deposit for a long hospital stay.
In the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, teachers at all schools and kindergartens are taking the temperatures of children twice a day. In Guangdong province, the government has had to patrol shops to regulate prices for medical products like masks, vinegar and garlic.