- Twelve people have died in Hong Kong today from the SARS virus, a record for a single day, and the World Health Organisation says it fears patients in the former British territory may be harder-hit by the microbe than elsewhere.
Singapore said Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome threatened to become its biggest crisis since independence, while China, where the virus is believed to have originated last year, intensified its newly declared open war on the disease and threatened to punish officials covering up cases.
Neighbouring Vietnam said it was considering closing its long border with China to keep the virus out.
In Canada, the only country outside Asia where people have died from the outbreak, health authorities reported one more death, bringing to 14 the number of people who have died from the virus.