Calling the lift of the travel warning against Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia by the World Health Organization late Friday an "obvious achievement" of the country's painstaking anti-SARS efforts, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said China would work hard to sustain and expand the achievement.

"Preventing the resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome should be the priority at present," the MOH said Saturday in a statement on its official website, calling for continuous vigilance instead of relaxation.

Effective control measures would be maintained and improved with those proved ineffective corrected, the ministry said, adding that fever clinics at hospital would continue to be operational to reduce the risk of in-hospital infection.

The ministry also asked to keep preventive and quarantine methods at airports, railway stations, ports, schools and construction sites for "early discovery, early report, early isolation and early treatment" of SARS cases.

David Heymann, WHO director of communicable diseases, urged China to build up its disease surveillance system during his brief trip to Beijing early this week.

The health ministry said construction of a national system of response to public health emergencies was underway, which underscored responsibilities of governments at all levels in disease surveillance, control and reporting.

Enhancing prevention and control of infectious diseases through legal means, campaigns to promote environmental sanitation, and health education would also be key tasks from now on.

WHO's decision to lift the SARS travel advisory for the four provinces in north China was "based on the first-hand information Heymann received during his trip to China," the MOH said in an early announcement.

"It marks that the outbreak of SARS in China has been effectively contained. Normal life in economic circles and the entire society is being restored," it said.

Criteria adopted by WHO to remove a SARS travel advisory for an area include: less than 60 probable cases at hospital; less than five new cases each day for successive three days; no unknown local transmission; no new export cases.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2003)