Beijing's acting mayor warned today the SARS situation in the Chinese capital was "severe" and that a shortage of hospital beds was preventing patients getting timely treatment.
The source of the infection, which has killed 66 people in the city, had yet to be cut off, said Mr Wang Qishan, who took over the job after his predecessor was sacked because of a SARS cover-up.
"At the present time the situation in Beijing remains severe for SARS prevention and treatment," he told a press conference.
"As the infection source has not yet been cut off, numbers of confirmed and suspected SARS cases remain high," he said.
With another 100 or so new confirmed cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome being added every day, Beijing's healthcare system is being stretched to the limit.
"Due to a shortage of berths at designated hospitals, not all suspected SARS patients can be hospitalized there in a timely manner," Mr Wang said.
According to the Beijing SARS Prevention and Control Center 19 medical facilities have been designated as SARS hospitals but at least three of them have been sealed off with no new patients being accepted.
In a tacit admission that Beijing's medical facilities are not up to the task of dealing with SARS, a completely new 1,000-bed hospital has been built on the city's outskirts in barely a week.
Patients are expected to move in Wednesday evening, removing some of the pressure generated by 1,347 confirmed infections and 1,358 suspected cases.
But a different bottleneck has emerged as only about four per cent of Beijing's 66,000 doctors and nurses have any training in treating respiratory diseases, according to Mr Wang.
Agencies