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Joshua Eisenman

Although there were seven new cases announced yesterday, the number of Sars hospitals has been cut

The central government yesterday declared that the Sars epidemic  was being brought under control, as the number of infections had stabilised in recent weeks.

Gao Qiang, the vice-executive minister of health, yesterday said the number of designated Sars hospitals in Beijing would be reduced from 19 to seven, with about 2,000 beds reserved for Sars victims.

The State Administration of Tourism announced that group tours to uninfected provinces would gradually resume from June.

The Ministry of Health announced that seven new cases had been recorded nationwide, with six in Beijing and one in Hebei province. One death was also recorded, along with 10 suspected cases.

As of Thursday, there were 1,877 Sars patients in hospital, while 3,121 - or 58.6 per cent of the cumulative confirmed cases of 5,325 nationwide - had been discharged, according to Mr Gao.

Calling for vigilance to prevent any relapse, Mr Gao yesterday appealed to the international community to remove travel warnings to provinces where no infections - or a low number of infections - had been recorded.

He said the ministry was now shifting from emergency management to seeking a more long-term solution by restructuring the public health system.

It is holding talks with the Ministry of Finance and the State Development and Reform Commission about the creation of designated disease hospitals.

Special medical teams will also be set up in provinces to handle emergency situations caused by infectious diseases.

The government would also create more branches of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and improve collection of data on infectious diseases, he said.

Mr Gao was appointed to the ministry more than a month ago, shortly before former health minister Zhang Wenkang and ex-Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong were sacked for mishandling the outbreak.

Mr Zhang came under heavy fire for claiming at a press conference in April that Sars was under control.

But Mr Gao yesterday  denied that Mr Zhang was sacked for trying to cover up the outbreak.

'I don't agree that comrade Zhang Wenkang was sacked because he concealed the outbreak. The Chinese government did not conceal the outbreak. You can search the files. The first official announcement about atypical pneumonia was on February 12.'

But Mr Gao stopped short of acknowledging  retired PLA doctor Jiang Yanyong, who in early April revealed that the number of infections in Beijing city far exceeded what the government had admitted. Seeing the situation was serious, Dr Jiang wrote to media outlets referring to the many Sars cases being treated in military hospitals. These cases, and many elsewhere, had not been acknowledged at the time by the central government.

'Dr Jiang is just one of six million medical workers in China,' Mr Gao said.

Mr Gao admitted that at least one Aids patient had contracted Sars,  but he did not reveal whether Sars infections were more prevalent among the mainland's Aids carriers.



Central government declares China's outbreak is under control