Conductors on air-conditioned buses, people working underground at subway stations, workers doing disinfection, employees working on long-distance buses and at bus stations still must wear the masks, however.

Passengers on non-commercial vehicles and taxies no longer need to fill out health declaration forms before leaving Shanghai. But passengers on long-distance buses must continue to fill out forms in an attempt to check the spread of the deadly virus.

One more of the city's SARS patients was released from hospital on Saturday, leaving three patients still undergoing treatment.

The 48-year-old woman from Beijing arrived in Shanghai with her husband and two children by private car on April 24. The husband came down with a fever the next day and was diagnosed with SARS on May 4, while the woman contracted a fever on May 1 and was also confirmed to have the disease on May 4. They were the city's fifth and sixth SARS cases.

Her husband, 57, died on May 15. Both of their children were healthy and returned to Beijing in the middle of last month.

The woman, who was not identified by the hospital, expressed her gratefulness to the medical staff for their considerate care and treatment yesterday as she left Shanghai Infectious Disease Hospital.

She also expressed sadness yesterday over losing her husband.

"Doctors and nurses gave me strong support when I was informed about my husband's death," she said. "I should draw a lesson from the experience. As none of our family had shown symptoms when we arrived here, we didn't consider quarantine as a must."

She will undergo a 14-day quarantine in the city and return to the hospital for a check-up before she can go back to Beijing.

(eastday.com June 2, 2003)