'It would be difficult to conclude there is a need for such information'
The decision to release details of where Sars cases are emerging around Hong Kong follows repeated refusals by health officials to give breakdowns of its figures.
Daily statistics released by the Department of Health have until now simply included information on how many Sars victims are health workers and how many are 'new patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia'.
The only other figures offered have been on the number of new cases in Amoy Gardens, the housing estate at the centre of the Kowloon Bay outbreak.
Officials refused to release information to the South China Morning Post on where other new cases were occurring or to give details of those who had died of the disease. In a written response to both inquiries, the Hospital Authority said: 'We have assessed your inquiry and [it] would be difficult to conclude there is a need for such information.'
The Department of Health, in response to the same inquiries, did provide a list of those who had died of atypical pneumonia, but omitted information about where they lived or where they had contracted the disease. A spokeswoman said she was also unable to provide more detailed information about new cases because of the 'limited time [available to] the officers tracing the cases'.
