Beijing, May 04: China today announced three new Sars cases taking the number of victims of the latest outbreak to nine while several hundred people remain in "medical observation", the Health Ministry said here. The health ministry said three suspected cases of Sars have been upgraded to confirmed cases during the last 24 hours after laboratory tests detected Sars anti-bodies in the patients. Seven of the patients of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) are being treated in Beijing, while the other two cases are in eastern Anhui province where one patient died on April 19. Six of the confirmed Sars patients were in stable condition in Beijing's Ditan Hospital while a seventh confirmed patient in the capital was expected to be released from hospital after recording a normal temperature for 18 consecutive days, it said.
However, there are no other suspected cases of Sars in the country, but several hundred people who have had contact with Sars patients are still under "medical observation" for symptoms of the disease, the ministry said on its website.

Sars, which erupted in South China's Guangdong province in November, 2002, killed over 800 people worldwide from some 8,000 infections.


China was the worst hit with 349 deaths on the mainland and 299 deaths in Hong Kong. Bureau Report