No SARS cases have been found in China at the moment, and once a case is reported, the Ministry of Health will make it public in the shortest possible time, China's executive deputy minister of health Gao Qiang said Saturday.

Gao made the remarks at a ceremony to mark the US company Kodak's donation of medical equipment to the Chinese Ministry of Health.

"I cannot say SARS will definitely return, neither can I say SARS will definitely not return, because there are still many things about SARS that we don't know," Gao said in response to reporters' question on whether the SARS epidemic would return in the coming winter and next spring.

"The Chinese government has intensified measures to prevent and control the disease. Even if SARS returns, the scenario like what had happened in China earlier this year will definitely not occur," he said.

Governments at various levels in the country have drawn out detailed plans against SARS, and in some places exercises to handle SARS-related emergency cases have been staged to improved the plans.

"We have set up a relatively complete epidemic reporting system by connecting the computer networks of the state epidemic surveillance institutions with those at the county level," Gao said.

According to the official, the Health Ministry has intensified efforts to train health and medical workers, improve technical guidelines and enhance scientific research for SARS prevention and control.

"The endeavor of the health sector is targeted at securing a safe environment for the life, study and work of the public," Gao said.

Gao also thanked foreign enterprises and companies including Kodak that had offered help to China for its fight against SARS.

Kodak on Saturday donated three mobile clinics to the ministry to help China improve medical service for people in its remote provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2003)