Beijing Hospital Quarantined

Officials in Beijing sealed off one of the city's major hospitals today to prevent health workers from spreading the Sars virus.

Police prevented anyone from entering or leaving the 1,200-bed Beijing University People's Hospital while it is disinfected and its staff and patients moved to one of the six Beijing hospitals designated to handle cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

At least 60 of the hospital's 2,300 employees have confirmed or suspected Sars infections, although the hospital is not one of those set aside for handling Sars.

The measure came as China announced 125 new cases of Sars and four further deaths. Mainland China has reported 110 deaths and more than 2,400 people infected with Sars.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's health ministry today reported the Balkan country's first suspected case of the virus. A Bulgarian man suffering from symptoms similar to Sars was admitted to a Sofia hospital on Saturday after returning from Toronto, where he had spent several months, the ministry said in a statement.

Today Hong Kong announced that four more people had died of the flu-like disease, bringing its death toll to 109 with 1,488 Sars cases.

Worldwide, the death toll rose to at least 261, with more than 4,300 cases of infection reported.

Today Japanese carmaker Toyota said it would help Japanese employees based in China return home for an extended holiday if they were nervous about the illness. Company spokesman Matsumoto Shinya said 30 of its 88 employees based in either their Beijing office or Tianjin production site had already returned.

Beijing public schools today shut down for two weeks to prevent the spread of the disease. Yesterday the city government announced it would invoke emergency measures to have people exposed to Sars quarantined at home and restrict access to buildings and areas with infections.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday told travellers to avoid Beijing and the province of Shanxi as well as Toronto, Canada. The WHO had earlier warned against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, where the disease is believed to have originated.

Canadian officials reacted with anger to the WHO's travel advice on Toronto, insisting that the city was safe and had recorded no cases where the disease had been spread by casual contact. Sixteen people have died of the disease in Canada, the worst affected area outside Asia.

Singapore, which has reported 17 deaths, was preparing a drug camp to hold any of its 2,467 people who are under home quarantine if they disobey orders and go out in public.

The country's parliament was planning today to amend public health laws, letting authorities fine or imprison quarantine violators without going to court.