The State Council has decided to cancel the week-long May Day holidays to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Executive Vice-Minister of Health Gao Qiang said Sunday at a news conference in Beijing.

"This year we will not have the week-long holiday," Gao said at the news conference held by the State Council Information Office.

"The purpose is to prevent the massive flow of people that could lead to the spread of SARS."

The May Day holidays were due to start on May 1 and run to May 7. The nationwide vacation was approved by the Chinese government in 1999 in an effort to boost consumer spending, and they have resulted in a booming domestic tourist trade.

Gao noted that China will make public information about SARS cases on a daily basis starting April 21, Gao said. Before this, the information was released every five days.

Gao said the State Council decision is aimed to raise the awareness of governments at all levels and the general public on SARS prevention and control.

Gao said that the epidemic reporting system must be carried out more strictly and violators would face severe punishment.

Gao said those officials in charge who are incompetent to have correct information about epidemics or intentionally cover up the situation of epidemics would be punished severely.

As a discipline, all medical institutions must strengthen monitoring of epidemics, timely check the cases, and report the situation to superior departments. No delay, cover-up or missing of the cases is allowed, he added.

Gao said that the number of SARS cases in Beijing has risen to 339, with 18 dead and 402 suspected cases, as of April 18, the Ministry of Health said Sunday at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Gao Qiang, the executive vice minister of the Ministry of Health, said that altgether, there was 1,807 cases in the Chinese mainland, with 1,304 in Guangdong.

Gao noted that five people from overseas in Beijing were confirmed to have SARS and another four from overseas were suspected of the disease.

There are 108 cases found in Shanxi, 25 in Inner Mongolia, 12 in Guangxi, six in Hunan, five in Sichuan, three in Fujian, two in Shanghai, two in Henan and one in Ningxia.

Gao said that China has actively and effectively cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) in controlling SARS.

Seven more SARS cases in Beijing Saturday

There another seven SARS cases had been reported in Beijing on Saturday, on top of the 339 cases already announced up to April 18, Gao said.

"I have been made aware of seven more cases in Beijing from Saturday," he said. This brings to 346 the number of confirmed cases in the capital.

Gao said that China has paid high attention to some working suggestions raised by the WHO, which played an important role for improving SARS control.

Gao said the fact that the Ministry of Health had not been well prepared for public health emergencies and the epidemic control system was comparatively weak also contributed to the sharp rise of SARS cases in Beijing.

When the SARS disease emerged, the ministry failed to formulate timely a unified system for collecting and reporting information about the epidemic situation across the country.

The ministry did not have a clear requirement to local health authorities on information collecting and reporting, nor gave them effective directions, the official said.

He said that Beijing Municipality had made great efforts and medical workers in the city had done their best to treat patients. However, as related departments did not have an effective mechanism in providing information, statistics and monitoring reports and carrying out follow-up investigations, they failed to have correct figures of SARS cases and report them to higher authorities.

"We must draw lessons in an earnest way from the failures and make improvements," Gao said.

He said the monitoring team dispatched by the State Council to Beijing on April 15 had worked together with the Beijing municipal government and related departments of the central government. They went to hospitals in Beijing one after another to check the number of SARS cases and register patients.

A week's hard work had resulted in the verified number of SARS patients, including those from other provinces, who were being treated in hospitals in Beijing, he said.

Zhu Qingsheng, vice minister of health attended the press conference to introduce the latest SARS cases, as well as the measures the Chinese government has taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

Editor: Wings