Taiwan, which has the world's fastest-growing outbreak of SARS, reported dozens more probable cases today as the epidemic appeared to be on the wane in China and Hong Kong.
A day after Taiwan reported a record daily rise in new infections and deaths, health officials reported 35 more cases, bringing the total on the island to 418.
The virus has spread rapidly through the island's health system, with a ninth hospital reporting suspected SARS cases today.
As the island of 23 million people struggled to contain the flu-like virus, China reported 12 new infections and Hong Kong just one, extending a steady decline in cases of the disease, which surfaced in southern China in November and has since killed at least 665 people worldwide.
The World Health Organisation said today it had removed the Philippines from a list of SARS-affected countries and Australia lifted a warning against travel to Singapore.
The UN health agency said it was removing the Philippines from its list because it had no new cases for 20 days, or two virus incubation periods.
Twenty days without a new infection is a criterion the WHO uses to declare SARS under control. Canada and Vietnam have been removed from its SARS-affected list after reporting no new cases for 20 days.
Singapore went 19 days without a new SARS case until last Sunday when one new case dashed the city-state's hopes of getting off the WHO list.
Nevertheless, Australia said that, with only one new patient in three weeks, there was no longer a reason to recommend that people do not travel to Singapore.
But Australians are still advised to defer non-essential travel to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.