Sacked Chinese officials slammed as Sars numbers surge

3.30pm

BEIJING - China's state media, silenced for weeks as Sars spread through the capital, let the floodgates open today and denounced the sacked health minister and mayor for negligence after authorities reported a huge spike in cases.

State-controlled newspapers splashed reports that Beijing had 339 infections, 18 deaths and 402 suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) by April 18 -- vastly higher than the 37 cases and four deaths reported earlier.

``Zhang Wenkang and Meng Xuenong negligent, lose government jobs,'' blared the front-page banner headline of the China Business Times, referring to the health minister and Beijing mayor.

State television was running repeats on Monday of the nationally televised news conference by Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang announcing the sharply higher case numbers in the capital and full translation of pointed questions by foreign journalists.

The stunning increase of cases in Beijing appeared to back allegations that officials had initially tried to hide the extent of the deadly flu-like disease.

China, stung by global criticism that it covered up the outbreak and thus helped the spread of Sars around the world, has been fighting to repair the worst damage to its image since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Analysts said the sackings were intended to put provincial leaders on notice that there should be no effort to cover up the spread of the disease and to tell the world that China was serious about curbing the outbreak.

The Beijing Star Daily said in a commentary: ``A cover-up is more scary than an epidemic.''

President Hu Jintao put China on a war footing against SARS on Thursday, ordering full disclosure and threatening harsh punishment for officials caught covering up cases or delaying reporting.

Sars has spread to three more Chinese provinces, bringing the nationwide toll to at least 1,825 infections and 79 deaths.

The eastern coastal province of Zhejiang reported three cases, while the northeast Jilin province had three and Liaoning province one, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The State Development and Reform Commission pledged to increase funding to prevent the spread of Sars in the impoverished central and western hinterland by 900 million yuan ($108.7 million) to 2.9 billion yuan, the China Daily said.

The World Health Organisation sent a team of virologists to Shanghai, which says its has only two cases, although there have been suggestions it may have more. Beijing has set up a Sars hotline that residents can call instead of phoning hospitals.

The government also cancelled the week-long May Day holiday to discourage people from travelling and spreading the disease.

Tens of millions of travellers had been expected to be on the move, filling trains, planes, buses and hotels throughout the massive country.

Sars, which is fatal in more than five percent of cases and has no known cure, has now killed 203 people and infected about 3,900 around the world, spread by travellers.

Singapore, which has the world's fourth-highest number of cases, expects to quarantine up to 2,400 people to help curb the spread of the disease, after ordering a food market to shut because three people who worked there had contracted the virus.

The outbreak at the wholesale market dealt a blow to hopes the disease would be confined to patients and staff in hospitals -- where most of the island's 178 cases of infections have occurred -- and people who have had close contact with them.

Hong Kong reported another seven deaths from Sars -- bringing its toll to 88, the highest in the world -- and 22 new infections on Sunday. The territory's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the outbreak had stabilised and would be checked, although it would stay around for some time.

In Canada, health authorities said on Sunday travellers on a suburban commuter train might have been exposed to Sars, sparking fears the virus could have spread beyond the medical community that has borne the brunt of the illness so far in the country.

Canada is the only country outside Asia where people have died of Sars and 14 have died from the virus in and around Toronto and thousands have been quarantined.

- REUTERS