Beijing, May 01: Chinese military medical personnel took charge of the world's first 1000-bed hospital here exclusively to treat the SARS epidemic today, as 11 deaths were reported in China and five in Hong Kong on a somber May day largely spent indoors without much celebration. With the 187 new cases reported today, China's nation-wide death toll now stands at 170 and the number of cases at 3,647. With the five new casualties, the death toll in Hong Kong special administrative region has mounted to 162. The deceased include five men aged between 34 and 83. It also reported 11 new patients since yesterday, much less than the usual 30 to 40 till Tuesday, taking the total number of infections to 1,600 since March 12. The SARS hospital in Xiaotangshan in the northern suburbs of Beijing was built by 7000 workers in eight days and the facility would be manned by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) doctors and other medical personnel, according to authorities.

Nearly 800 military medical personnel had already arrived at the hospital, to which some 200 SARS patients from other local hospitals have been moved.

China's ministry of health said that seven of the 11 new deaths were in the capital Beijing, currently the hardest hit place in the world, and the city accounted for 122 of the latest cases.

A Taiwanese nurse treating the severe acute respiratory syndrome patients also died, as Canada, worst-hit after Asia reported two more deaths, one day after rejoicing over the lift of a WHO warning against travel to Toronto city.

Bureau Report