Five more Hong Kong people were confirmed to have contracted Sars yesterday and a third health-care worker died. Among the new patients was a nurse at Queen Mary Hospital, the first of its staff to be infected. A second nurse was under observation for suspected Sars. Seven people died of Sars yesterday, including Tang Heung-may, a health-care assistant at United Christian Hospital. The third medical worker in public hospitals to die from the disease, she had been working in a non-Sars ward and was believed to have been infected by a patient who did not initially show symptoms. The hospital's chief executive, Tse Chun-yan, described Ms Tang as dedicated and committed. Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong said he was 'grieved to hear of the loss' and Hospital Authority chairman Leong Che-hung said assistance and support would be offered to the family. The six others who died yesterday were three men and three women aged 65 to 89, all with chronic illnesses. These brought to 234 the total number of deaths from Sars in Hong Kong. Infections reached 1,703, with 54 patients in intensive care and 1,160 patients discharged, including 32 yesterday. Queen Mary Hospital microbiology and infection control chief Seto Wing-hong said that for eight weeks, no staff had been infected at the hospital. He attributed this to luck and good infection control. 'We are very fortunate that we did not have a very big outbreak in the beginning so we have had time to think through this very carefully,' Dr Seto said. 'Give any hospital enough time, enough planning and enough preparation, and we can really fight Sars and prevent large outbreaks.' Ministry of Health officials announced that there were 52 new cases on the mainland yesterday and four deaths. Of the new infections, 27 were in Beijing, marking the lowest daily rise since April 20.