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Title : China's farmers, villagers riot against plans to set up quarantine centre
By :
Date : 05 May 2003 1834 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/eastasia/view/39036/1/.html

Fresh unrest sparked by panic over SARS was reported in rural areas of China Monday while apparent success in controlling the virus in Hong Kong and Canada was tempered by fears the disease may be more resilient than previously thought.

Fearing that the virus would spread to their areas, villagers in two remote parts of China destroyed SARS quarantine centres and beat up officials, a sign
the disease was creating social instability across the country.

They attacked a government office, and beat up officials.

"Several people have been detained as a result of the incident," a police official in Yuhuan county in eastern Zhejiang province said.

In another incident, villagers rioted from April 25 to 28 in Linzhou city, central Henan province, ransacking a planned SARS quarantine center and other
medical facilities, Zhou Dawei, a local Linzhou official said.

The Linzhou riot resulted in the May 2 sacking of the director of the city's health bureau Wang Songlin and the city's infectious diseases station
head Wang Yuxi, Zhou said.

At least 13 people were arrested following the incident.

Last month, villagers in another province destroyed a planned quarantine centre.

Social stability is becoming a casualty, in China's war on SARS.

There are growing fears, that the epidemic would spread to rural areas.

In Beijing however, confidence in official government reports that SARS was being brought under control prompted many people to "prematurely" lower their
guards against the virus, taking to once deserted streets.

"SARS is gradually coming under control," said James Zhang, explaining why he was not worried about taking his girlfriend to mix with more than 1,000
other visitors at Chaoyang Park in eastern Beijing.

But the WHO's Beijing-based spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram warned there was no room for complacency.

"There's a lot more analysis that needs to be done, and we think it's premature to make that kind of assessment," she said.

In another development in China on Monday, the official China Daily reported that most of Beijing's 80 reservoirs have been put under isolation to prevent the SARS virus from entering the city's water supply.

It said swimming, fishing and other recreation activities had been halted in the latest measures enforced by the government to prevent the spread of SARS.

All entertainment venues have been shut in Beijing, indoor sports banned and schools closed.

More than 15,000 people have been quarantined in the capital.

State media said up to 55 senior officials and hospital directors have also been sacked for failing to set up quarantine areas and impose regulations, while lower-level medical personnel were quitting over safety fears.

On the scientific front, new research has emerged which shows that the SARS virus is more resilient than first thought and can survive for weeks outside
the human body.

The research published by the WHO suggests that SARS may be spread through contact with contaminated objects and not just through direct contact with an infected person.

The SARS virus can survive for hours on common surfaces outside the human body, and up to four days in human waste, according to the research carried out in laboratories in Hong Kong, Japan and Germany.

SARS has killed some 450 people around the world and more than 6,400 probable or confirmed cases have been reported from more than two dozen countries.




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