HK health official is confident of meeting Sars target A senior health official said yesterday Hong Kong could meet the World Health Organisation's requirements for lifting the travel advisory against it by mid-June if the number of new Sars cases did not exceed three a day. Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin told a Legislative Council health services panel meeting that all 165 Sars patients would be discharged in three weeks, if their conditions followed typical treatment patterns. 'With a daily average of less than three new cases, we can meet the WHO criteria in 21 days,' Dr Leung predicted. Hospital Authority director Ko Wing-man said the estimate would have to be adjusted if more patients were admitted to intensive care units. The WHO says there must be an average of no more than five cases over three days, the number of patients must not exceed 60, there must be no export of cases and the mode of transmission must be known in all new cases. But Dr Leung's assessment was not supported by the Director of Health, Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun. 'That is an estimate ... I do not think we have expectations as to when they [the WHO] will lift the travel warning,' she said. Hong Kong reported one new case of Sars yesterday, the second time it has done so, and marked the 18th consecutive day of single-digit new infections. Two patients, aged 84 and 88, died, taking the toll to 255. Forty-two patients are in intensive care. Vice-Premier Wu Yi said last night in Geneva it was 'very good' that Hong Kong had just one new case yesterday and there was no reason for the WHO not to lift the travel advisory. The WHO's Western Pacific spokesman, Peter Cordingley, played down the chances that the travel advisory would be lifted soon. 'Now we are more concerned about the linkage between Guangdong province and Hong Kong. That's what we are watching over the next [few] days.'
