CHINA: The World Health Organisation declared the Chinese capital free of the spread of SARS yesterday and lifted its warning against travel to the city, prompting small but ecstatic bursts of celebration.
Beijing was the last remaining area in the world subject to a WHO travel warning because of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which originated in southern China, infected more than 8,000 people worldwide and killed more than 800.
The announcement underscored the turnaround in Beijing, which was widely blamed for concealing the scale of contagion for weeks before confronting it head on and mobilising the masses.
"Today is a milestone in the fight against SARS, not only in China but in the world," Mr Shigeru Omi, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, told a Beijing news conference.
Beijing has had more than 2,500 cases of the flu-like illness and more than 190 deaths - more than anywhere else - but has gone 13 days without any new confirmed infections.
Meanwhile, Greece reported a suspected case of SARS yesterday, saying the possible victim was a Chinese citizen on a business trip to Europe.
"This time we have a real suspect case," the Health Minister, Mr Costas Stefanis, told a news conference. "He is a Chinese citizen who has arrived here from China."
He said a Chinese businessman left Shanghai on June 14th and made several stops before arriving in Greece.
He arrived in Athens on June 21st, having stopped off at Frankfurt, Milan, Graz in Austria, and Rome.