Government departments are mobilizing their forces across the
nation to fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS), which has badly affected the lives and work of many people.
The All-China Federation of Trade Unions announced yesterday it
will award three hospitals and six medical staff the "May 1 Labour
Medal" to commend their dedication in the war against SARS.
It
also allocated 3.7 million yuan (US$449,000) to award medical staff
treating SARS patients.
Fears about the deadly SARS virus have had a bad affect on people's
lives in Beijing.
The Sixth China Beijing International High-Tech Expo, scheduled to
be held from May 23 to 27, has been postponed until further notice,
said its organizing committee in a bulletin yesterday.
The China National Library and the Capital Library in Beijing will
be closed for almost two weeks.
However, the national library staff should go to work as usual and
Internet and telephone services will continue, according to a
library staff member surnamed Xu.
The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicines yesterday
recommended six prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicines to
help people prevent SARS.
But Zhu Kangnian, secretary-general of the China Health Care
Science Technology Society yesterday appealed to residents to be
cautious about buying health care food products.
In
Shanghai, the expert team from the World Health Organization (WHO)
continued their investigations.
WHO released a latest travel warning that discourages people from
visiting Beijing and North China's Shanxi Province.
"We understand the preventive measures taken by some international
organizations and countries against the epidemic situation in
China," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao yesterday in
Beijing.
He
spoke highly of the co-operation between China and the WHO, hoping
this will continue.
China will seriously study the suggestions the WHO has put forward
to prevent and cure the epidemic, said Liu.
Hong Kong yesterday saw an increase of 30 SARS patients, 10 of whom
are residents of Tai Po district.
Health authorities have also found the third suspected SARS case in
Macao.
(China Daily April 25, 2003)