Beijing feels like a quarantined city

The Chinese authorities have blocked access to all reservoirs in the capital, Beijing, in their latest attempt to contain the Sars outbreak.

Swimming, fishing and boating on the reservoirs have been banned, adding to the list of activities already forbidden under Beijing's stringent Sars prevention measures.

The reservoir closure is an attempt to prevent the virus reaching the public water supply.

It follows the publication of new research from the World Health Organization, which said that the Sars virus can survive outside the human body for much longer than was previously thought.

It can live for up to 24 hours on any surface, and up to four days in sewage, according to the WHO report.

On Monday, China reported nine more Sars deaths and 160 new cases, bringing the nationwide death toll to 206 and the total number of cases to 4,280.

Throughout China, people are both scared and angry at the new disease in their midst.

On Sunday night, more than 100 villagers in the eastern province of Zhejiang rioted in protest at the decision to set up a Sars quarantine centre in their locality.

The protesters broke into a local government office and attacked officials there, according to media reports.

There is also unease over the pattern of the disease's spread. It remains unclear why large areas of China appear to have been unaffected.

The head of the WHO's communicable disease office in Beijing, Alan Schnur, said that either the rest of China had been extremely lucky, or the true figures of SARS infections were still being under-reported.

While China continues its battle against Sars, other countries affected by the outbreak appear to be seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Singapore, the worst-hit region after mainland China and Hong Kong, showed signs of containing the virus on Monday.

It is now more than 48 hours since Singapore announced a new Sars case, and the city-state has reopened a major food market at the heart of the Sars outbreak.

Two other badly hit areas - Hong Kong and Canada - also seemed to be winning the battles against Sars.

Just eight new cases were reported in Hong Kong on Monday, the 11th day running in which the number of new cases has declined or remained stable.

Canada reported just one new "probable" case of the disease on Sunday.

But there was growing concern over the severity of the outbreak in Taiwan, where the death toll has now risen to 10.

In a sign of that concern, WHO officials met with Taiwan's health authorities for the first time since Taipei lost its UN seat to Beijing in 1972.

'City under siege'

The chances that Sars could spread through drinking water are extremely small, but the closure of Beijing's reservoirs shows that no one in the city is taking any chances.

The BBC correspondent in Beijing, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, says the capital feels increasingly like a city under siege.

The outbreak has hurt the tourist trade

Officially, around 16,000 of the city's population are now in quarantine, but unofficially all 13 million are under a virtual quarantine, our correspondent says.

Leaving the city is becoming increasingly difficult, as flights to other areas are cancelled and highways blocked.

Schools, cinemas, gyms, swimming pools and restaurants are now closed.

Our correspondent also says that the latest WHO research - which suggests that Sars can be spread by people touching a contaminated doorknob or lift button - is likely to lead to a redoubling of efforts to disinfect Beijing's public areas.

The strict anti-Sars measures in China's capital are also being taken up in other Chinese provinces.

In Taiyuan, the capital of northern Shanxi province where more than 300 Sars cases have so far been reported, all schools will remain shut until further notice, the China News Service said on Monday.

Even in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, where just six cases have been recorded, all entertainment venues have been ordered to shut, the local Dahe newspaper said.