Canada's largest city braced itself today for a new outbreak of SARS, on news that an undiagnosed sufferer may have exposed hundreds to the illness that has already killed 24 people there.
Officials were investigating 33 possible SARS cases and had sent some 500 people into quarantine today, less than two weeks after Canada was taken off the World Health Organisation (WHO) list of SARS-affected areas.
Canada is the only country outside Asia to report any deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has killed more than 680 people worldwide since it first appeared in China in November.
The bulk of Canada's outbreak and all of the deaths have occurred around Toronto. An elderly woman brought the illness from Hong Kong in late February.
In recent weeks, the number of active probable SARS cases in Canada had dropped to single digits from a peak of more than 140. Weary health officials had hoped the disease was under control here.
Toronto had not had a new SARS case since April 19th and was cleared by the WHO as a SARS-affected area 12 days ago.
Officials are investigating whether two recently-deceased people had died of SARS without ever having been diagnosed, unwittingly exposing hundreds, including health care workers, patients and their family members.
One of them, a 96-year-old man, may have developed SARS, rather than a simple pneumonia, after pelvic surgery.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's government said today the SARS virus has killed another four people in the city and infected two others.
The latest figures bring the local death toll to 266, a hospital official said. Hong Kong for the first time reported no new daily SARS infection cases yesterday since the outbreak of the deadly disease hit the city in March.
China today reported 16 new SARS cases and seven more deaths while Taiwan reporteed as 12 more deaths.
Agencies