Hong Kong Sars Toll Reaches 40

Five more Sars patients have died in Hong Kong, health officials said yesterday.

The latest deaths from the flu-like, severe acute respiritory syndrome pushed Hong Kong's total to 40 and, together with three more fatalities reported in Singapore, took the global toll to at least 133.

Earlier yesterday, Cathay Pacific Airways acknowledged that an executive had warned in a memo that its entire passenger fleet could be grounded if the disease continued to have a serious effect on Asia's travel industry.

A Cathay spokeswoman insisted there were no plans to cease operations. But the memo, first reported in local newspapers, underlined the financial damage Sars has inflicted.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's airport authority said that traffic at Chek Lap Kok airport had plunged to about a third of where it stood last year, with 30% of flights cancelled in recent days. It warned: "Our core business is under threat."

In Manila, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Filipina maids planning to return home from Hong Kong would be checked by doctors at the Philippines consulate in the territory. About 145,000 maids from the Philippines work in Hong Kong.