CHINA CANCELS MAY DAY AND SACKS HEALTH MINISTER AS SARS CASES MULTIPLY BY 10

Please note that 2 articles follow:

*Killer bug forces China to cancel holiday
*Top Chinese officials sacked as SARS cover-up revealed


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(1)

Killer bug forces China to cancel holiday
BBC
April 20, 2003, 11.15
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_2962000/2962051.stm


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http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39117000/jpg/_39117835_sars_boy_ap150.jpg

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Families in China have been forced to cancel their holiday plans as the government's called off the May Day break because of the killer bug, Sars.

The virus is now spreading very quickly there.

May Day is a very popular, week-long, break in China and lots of families travel around the country in their time off.

But the government is worried that all the moving around will help the virus spread even more.

Serious

So far, 79 people have died in China from the bug. And another 1,807 people have the illness.

Worldwide, nearly 200 people have been killed.

Some people have accused the Chinese Government of not being honest about how serious the bug really is in their country.

New cases

Seven more people have died from the bug in Hong Kong, which takes the total number of deaths there to 88.

New cases have also been reported in Canada.

The virus is thought to have originally started in the Guangdong area of China, and quickly spread to other countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_2962000/2962051.stm


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(2)

Top Chinese officials sacked as SARS cover-up revealed
ABC
April 20, 2003
http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-20apr2003-78.htm

China has dismissed the country's Health Minister and the Mayor of Beijing, just hours after disclosing an almost ten-fold leap in the number of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in the capital.

No reason for the sacking of Zhang Wenkang and Meng Xuenong was given.

The BBC's Holly Williams reports, after weeks of Chinese whispers, Health Minister Zhang Wenkang has finally gone public.

The official number of SARS patients in Beijing, 37, was wrong, he said.

The real total is 339, with another 402 suspected cases.

The national total has also been bumped up by several hundred.

It is an embarrassing admission from the authorities in China, prompted by doctors accusing the government of lying, and a demand from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that China come clean.

To prove it is now taking SARS seriously, the government has cancelled the upcoming mayday week long holiday, to stop the virus travelling as the populace moves about.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-20apr2003-78.htm