Gao said at a press conference that SARS was a sudden and severe disaster. "It takes time from receiving the patients to confirming SARS cases," he said, adding that after a period of diagnosis and treatment, some of the suspected cases with obvious symptoms were confirmed to be SARS patients, thus increasing the total number of SARS cases.

A lack of effective communication and information exchanges among hospitals in Beijing was another major reason, the official said.

The patients were located in more than 70 Beijing hospitals belonging to different departments, therefore, it was difficult for the city health authority to have accurate and comprehensive statistics on SARS cases in the city.

According to Gao, there are 175 hospitals of second grade or higher in Beijing. Among them, 131 are at municipal, district and county levels, 14 belonging to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, 16 run by the military and armed forces and 14 belonging to various industries.

Gao said the fact that the Ministry of Health had not been well prepared for public health emergencies and the epidemic control system was comparatively weak also contributed to the sharp rise of SARS cases in Beijing.

When the SARS disease emerged, the ministry failed to formulate timely a unified system for collecting and reporting information about the epidemic situation across the country.

The ministry did not have a clear requirement to local health authorities on information collecting and reporting, nor gave them effective directions, the official said.

He said that Beijing Municipality had made great efforts and medical workers in the city had done their best to treat patients. However, as related departments did not have an effective mechanism in providing information, statistics and monitoring reports and carrying out follow-up investigations, they failed to have correct figures of SARS cases and report them to higher authorities.

"We must draw lessons in an earnest way from the failures and make improvements," Gao said.

He said the monitoring team dispatched by the State Council to Beijing on April 15 had worked together with the Beijing municipal government and related departments of the central government. They went to hospitals in Beijing one after another to check the number of SARS cases and register patients.

A week's hard work had resulted in the verified number of SARS patients, including those from other provinces, who were being treated in hospitals in Beijing, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2003)