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Shi Jiangtao

Deputy health minister Gao Qiang has admitted that the recent Sars outbreak showed problems with the safety management and staff health-check procedures at Beijing's leading institute for research into the virus.

But health authorities maintained yesterday it would take time to find  the source of the recent cases.

Noting the loopholes, Mr Gao  said his ministry and the national disease control centre would develop  measures to improve management and strengthen safety checks at the institute.

He was speaking during an inspection of a Sars quarantine centre in Beijing on Friday. His comments were  reported by the mainland media yesterday.

In a separate report, Xinhua said  an expert team, established  after the first Sars case was confirmed, was still working on separating and verifying  the Sars virus found in a national virology institute's laboratory.

Cases of the new Sars outbreak were all linked to the Research Institute of Virus Diseases, which is under the Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). It houses live Sars virus for experiments.

The team includes experts from the institute, Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Beijing CDC . The World Health Organisation also sent experts to help investigate and control the outbreak.

During Mr Gao's  visit, Beijing mayor Wang Qishan pledged again that the city would not repeat its mistakes in the handling of Sars.

'Beijing definitely cannot see a repetition of what happened last year. Otherwise, how could Beijing convince the world that it has the qualification and ability to host the Olympic Games?' he said.

No new Sars cases were reported yesterday, according to the health ministry.

Meanwhile, Xinhua reported yesterday that the first Sars patient in Anhui province,  a 26- year-old postgraduate student, was expected to be discharged from hospital tomorrow.

The report said the woman,  believed to be the index patient who contracted Sars while working as an intern at the virology institute in Beijing, was in good condition and her temperature had been  normal  for 15  days.

One Beijing Sars patient was in critical condition due to previous diseases, while the other patients were recovering rapidly, the ministry said.

So far, 693 people put in quarantine for having close contact with Sars patients in Beijing have been released from medical observation.



Minister pledges better safety at lab tied to Sars cases