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The following is jointly issued by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority:
There are two newly confirmed cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) today (June 7), the 23rd consecutive days on which the number of cases has fallen below 5 since May 16.
The infection cases involved two elderly women who are believed to have contracted SARS during their stay in hospital.
One of patients was admitted to North District Hospital on May 22 and was transferred to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital on June 3. The other patient was admitted to Caritas Medical Centre on April 1.
Ten more patients had recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospital. This brought to 1 360 the total number of recovered patients so far.
The number of SARS patients in intensive care units is 20. They are among the 73 cases under treatment in hospitals. Most of the patients are showing positive responses to the treatment protocol. Moreover, 33 are recovering patients in convalescence and in preparation for discharge.
No fatality was reported. The cumulative total of deaths relating to SARS remains at 286.
To minimize hospital infection, public hospitals are spacing out hospital beds, installing plastic curtains as partition if feasible. Improvement works on ventilation facilities in hospital wards will continue.
Meanwhile, temperature checks for all passengers at the airport, ports and border points continue to be implemented to watch for travellers displaying symptoms of SARS. In addition, all incoming travellers are required to complete a health declaration. Three passengers were screened out during temperature checks at these points yesterday. After undergoing further medical checks, all three were however cleared of SARS symptoms and continued their journey.
All household contacts of confirmed or suspected SARS patients are required to undergo home confinement for monitoring and treatment up to a maximum of 10 days. So far, a total of 1 256 persons (from 492 households) had been covered, of whom 34 had been found to have SARS. Thanks to the co-operation of the confinees and members of the community, no new warning letter had been issued since May 16 and the scheme is running smoothly.
The cumulative figure for patients who have been admitted to public hospitals with SARS since March 12 is as follows:
| Nature | Cumulative Number | Total No. of Discharged Patients | Total No. of Deaths | No. of Patients in Hospital |
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| Health care workers of Hospitals/Clinics and medical students | 386 | 358 | 286 ( + 0) |
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| Patients, family members & visitors | 1366 ( + 2) | 1002 ( + 10) | ||||||||||
| Total | 1752 ( + 2) | 1360 ( + 10) | ||||||||||
| Suspected cases | 7 |
End/Saturday, June 7, 2003
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