The second suspected SARS case was reported Wednesday in Guangzhou and the patient has been quarantined in the No. 8 People's Hospital of Guangdong, said a report on the Nanfang Daily.

"A 20-year-old female restaurant employee had been decided as a suspected SARS patient by a group of experts in Guangzhou Wednesday," said the report on Thursday's Nanfang Daily.

The suspected SARS patient is from central China's Henan province. She was sent to the Zhenggu Hospital in Guangzhou's Yuexiu Disctrict after having a fever from December 26, 2003, according to the newspaper.

The patient was exposed to the public for the first time by authorities on January 5.

Earlier in Hong Kong, Guangzhou Respiratory Disease Research Institute Director Zhong Nanshan said the patient had tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) antibody on her first test. But Zhong added that more tests were to be conducted on the 20-year-old patient to decide whether she was in fact a suspected case or not.

The patient has had no fever for eight consecutive days," said Guangzhou Municipal Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Director Wang Ming.

"Our treatment for her has been exactly the same as treating a suspected case," Xu said. 

Some 48 people have been quarantined and 52 people put under medical observation for having been in contact with the suspected SARS patient. None of them has developed a fever or shown other symptoms of the deadly virus.

"What we have done is only for a perfectly safe purpose so as to avoid even the slightest possibility of another outbreak of the virus," said Xu Ruiheng, Guangdong Provincial CDC deputy director.

The 32-year-old television producer, the only confirmed SARS case contracted out of laboratory since last July, is expected to be discharged from hospital today.

Only one person of the 81 people believed to be in contact with him is still under medical observation.

(China Daily January 8, 2004)