Canada Reports 33 new possible Sars cases

TORONTO - Ontario health officials said today they were monitoring 33 people for the deadly SARS virus with another 500 in quarantine and warned that the number of suspected cases could grow in coming days.

The possible SARS cases, up from 25 on Saturday, have put hospital emergency rooms on high alert and raised concerns that the World Health Organization may again slap a travel advisory on Canada's largest city. Nurses are again wearing full-face masks and double gloves to protect themselves.

The UN agency last week said Canada was free of the spread of the deadly disease, which has killed 24 people in the Toronto area, the only place outside Asia where there have been SARS deaths. Officials are also investigating two more deaths to determine if they are SARS related.

All told, there have been 257 probable cases of SARS in Ontario province. Six remain hospitalised.

"This is still an institutional outbreak," said Dr. Donald Low, chief of microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital. "This is not a disease that does well in the community."

Health officials said the public should not panic, but the news has prompted the US Centers for Disease Control to tell travellers to take care if they visit Canada's largest city.

For several weeks it seemed Canada's battle with SARS was nearly over. No new cases had been recorded since April 19, a month after the outbreak first started in Canada in mid March.

"The cases do not currently meet the probable or suspect case definition set out by the WHO and the CDC," said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health. He said officials were treating them as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome to be safe. The new possible cases, along with the discovery of mad cow disease in Alberta, is sending shock waves through the economy of Toronto and Canada. The United States and several other countries have banned Canadian beef imports.

Canadian health officials have also warned about West Nile virus as mosquito season starts with the summer near.

An editorial cartoon in Saturday's National Post showed a family exclaiming " AAh ... the weekend!" all dressed in head-to-toe protective suits, including the dog.

Toronto businesses are worried the summer might bring just a trickle of tourists instead of the millions who visit Toronto, which accounts for a fifth of Canada's economy.

"Economically, this (SARS) is far worse than the fallout from the (Sept. 11) terrorist attacks," Rod Seiling, president of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association, said. Occupancy levels were 46.7 per cent in April at hotels in the greater Toronto area -- which has about 4.5 million people -- down from 68 per cent in April 2002.

Most worry that another WHO travel advisory could send an economic recovery into a tailspin.

A WHO spokesman in Geneva said there was no talk or risk at the moment of a travel advisory being reinstated on Toronto.

WHO's Iain Simpson said in Geneva that Canada will get back to the agency with more information on Tuesday.

"Until then we won't know much more," he said.