There has been no cover-up, Liaison Office tells DAB

Beijing officials in Hong Kong have sought to calm fears that the mainland has covered up Sars cases.

Zhou Junming, deputy director of the Central Government Liaison Office, said yesterday that reporting mechanisms to the World Health Organisation and Hong Kong government had been running smoothly.

He said the central government and the Guangdong authorities attached great importance to the work of tackling Sars.

'The central government also adopts the principle of people-based [governance] and requires the government at all levels to handle this well. Whoever is doing their job improperly will be fired,' he said after meeting legislators from the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong on the latest Sars situation in Guangdong.

Speaking at a business lunch, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa warned that there might be sporadic cases in the city in coming weeks. But he said the government had learned from the painful experience of last year's outbreak.

'I had a long telephone discussion with [Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food] Dr Yeoh [Eng-kiong] this morning to walk through some of these scenarios. He appeared to be confident that we will be able to master whatever may come ahead of us,' Mr Tung said.