Beijing, May 10: A Beijing health official said on Friday it was not known where up to 60 per cent of new confirmed SARS cases received by hospitals in the Chinese capital were coming from.

‘‘According to a preliminary analysis of Beijing statistics, about 40-50 per cent of the newly admitted patients every day are within our control,’’ Liang Wannian, deputy Chief of the Beijing Health Administration, told a press meet.
‘‘That is to say, they became sick either under medical observation or under quarantine after coming into contact with patients,’’ he said. ‘‘We are not clear where the the remaining cases are coming from.”
The number of cases of SARS in the city of 14 million people has risen dramatically over the past two weeks, often by 100 or more a day. International experts say ‘‘contact tracing’’ of SARS victims, or determining exactly who infected people have had contact with, and isolating those people, is key to tackling the virus.
But Liang said a ‘‘rising trend’’ of SARS in the capital was under effective control and there were signs the number of new cases was falling.



‘‘On the whole, the rising trend of SARS in the city of Beijing has been effectively controlled and the signs and trend of a decline have emerged,’’ Liang said.