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CNN Live At Daybreak
China Taking Drastic Measures to Prevent Spread of SARS
Aired April 28, 2003 - 05:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about China now, the country hit hardest by SARS. It is now taking drastic measures to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly virus.
CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver joins us live by phone from Beijing now with the latest -- good morning, Lisa.
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, just in the last hour, the Ministry of Health came out with its most recent figures. There are now 203 new SARS cases nationwide. Ninety-six of those cases, people suffering from SARS, are in Beijing. The total number of people who have died in Beijing over the last several weeks now stands at 59 people. That is the highest number of deaths anywhere in the country and that goes, as well, for a number of suspected cases.
What this is boiling down to is the outbreak and the severity of the outbreak of the SARS disease does appear to be most severe in the Chinese capital. That's a concern that the World Health Organization shares. It's emphasizing today that, A, that Beijing is suffering the most. And B, that the figures that China's Ministry of Health is coming out with every day don't tell the entire story of how this disease is spreading. It's difficult, they say, to track really how it moves around through the population based on those figures because when new SARS cases are reported by the Chinese authorities it's unclear if they're really new or if some of them are old cases that were earlier under reported or not reported at all. The World Health Organization estimating that half are actually new and the other half not.
Now, Chinese authorities' main approach to all of this has been containment, quarantine. This has gone beyond the initial several hospitals that were sealed off a few days ago. Now, at various locations around the city, nearly 8,000 people suspected of having been exposed to the SARS, not sufferers, but suspected of having it, are being basically not allowed to leave where they are. That is the main preventive measure at the moment to avoiding further contagion -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And also they've closed down movie theaters and a lot of other public entertainment centers, right?
WEAVER: Yes, they have, and people are sort of waiting to see what's next -- restaurants, hotels, some, not all, public space has been sealed off. And this is really going to come at a cost. Chinese economists are projecting that SARS will reduce China's national economic growth, could reduce it by from one to two percentage points this year. Forecasts for Beijing also not rosy, people saying that it might lose about 2.4 million U.S. dollars worth of tourism revenue -- tourism is a big revenue earner for the Chinese capital -- losing about two thirds of its forecast revenue before SARS hit the city -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Lisa Rose Weaver reporting live by phone from Beijing this morning.
For more on the SARS outbreak, including a time line on when and where the virus started and where it spread, log onto our Web site at cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 28, 2003 - 05:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about China now, the country hit hardest by SARS. It is now taking drastic measures to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly virus.
CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver joins us live by phone from Beijing now with the latest -- good morning, Lisa.
LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, just in the last hour, the Ministry of Health came out with its most recent figures. There are now 203 new SARS cases nationwide. Ninety-six of those cases, people suffering from SARS, are in Beijing. The total number of people who have died in Beijing over the last several weeks now stands at 59 people. That is the highest number of deaths anywhere in the country and that goes, as well, for a number of suspected cases.
What this is boiling down to is the outbreak and the severity of the outbreak of the SARS disease does appear to be most severe in the Chinese capital. That's a concern that the World Health Organization shares. It's emphasizing today that, A, that Beijing is suffering the most. And B, that the figures that China's Ministry of Health is coming out with every day don't tell the entire story of how this disease is spreading. It's difficult, they say, to track really how it moves around through the population based on those figures because when new SARS cases are reported by the Chinese authorities it's unclear if they're really new or if some of them are old cases that were earlier under reported or not reported at all. The World Health Organization estimating that half are actually new and the other half not.
Now, Chinese authorities' main approach to all of this has been containment, quarantine. This has gone beyond the initial several hospitals that were sealed off a few days ago. Now, at various locations around the city, nearly 8,000 people suspected of having been exposed to the SARS, not sufferers, but suspected of having it, are being basically not allowed to leave where they are. That is the main preventive measure at the moment to avoiding further contagion -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And also they've closed down movie theaters and a lot of other public entertainment centers, right?
WEAVER: Yes, they have, and people are sort of waiting to see what's next -- restaurants, hotels, some, not all, public space has been sealed off. And this is really going to come at a cost. Chinese economists are projecting that SARS will reduce China's national economic growth, could reduce it by from one to two percentage points this year. Forecasts for Beijing also not rosy, people saying that it might lose about 2.4 million U.S. dollars worth of tourism revenue -- tourism is a big revenue earner for the Chinese capital -- losing about two thirds of its forecast revenue before SARS hit the city -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Lisa Rose Weaver reporting live by phone from Beijing this morning.
For more on the SARS outbreak, including a time line on when and where the virus started and where it spread, log onto our Web site at cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
