THE US: The global cost of the SARS outbreak is already approaching $30 billion, according to a report in the latest edition of Time magazine.
In Canada, the country most affected outside Asia, where the disease originated, J.P. Morgan Securities estimates that the city of Toronto is losing $30 million a day as a result of the outbreak, Time reported.
With 269 of Canada's 344 possible SARS cases and 20 of its deaths from the atypical strain of pneumonia, Toronto has borne the brunt of the country's outbreak.
In Asia, where Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has hit hardest, economists predict that China and South Korea could each lose as much as two billion dollars in tourism revenue, retail sales and productivity as a direct result of the disease.
Japan and Hong Kong stand to lose around $1 billion each, according to Time.
In a separate report, the magazine claimed that health workers in Toronto missed early and key opportunities that might have drastically slowed the spread of the disease.
Incidents included the transfer of a patient from an affected hospital to an unaffected one, lax enforcement of isolation orders, and hospital workers who may have been fatigued and complacent, Time revealed.
Worldwide, SARS has now killed more than 300 people and infected nearly 5,000, most of them in Asia. - (AFP)