None of the about 4,000 foreign experts working in Beijing have so far been infected or suspected of being infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an official with the Beijing Municipal Office for Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
Most of the foreign experts have remained calm in the face of the epidemic, in good health and working as usual, the official said.
This was shown by a survey of foreign experts working at several dozen foreign-funded enterprises including the Beijing-based offices of the Temrumo Corporation and Mitsut Co. of Japan, Airbus Industrie China, Dell Corporation and Tomen Co., according to the official.
During the period when Beijing reported two-digit new SARS cases daily, Rakesh Vats, an Indian expert teaching at Beijing University, continued his teaching as usual.
He told his students to keep calm and pay attention to their personal sanitation. Encouraged by Vats, none of his postgraduatesstudents left school or missed a a single course.
Eight international schools including the Beijing BISS International School, the International School of Beijing-Shunyi, the Korea International School in Beijing and the International Montessori Kindergarten of Beijing have carried on classes as normal.
To obtain timely information on the health condition of foreignexperts and their relatives, the Beijing Municipal Office for Foreign Affairs urged all concerned work units to report on their health, how they responded to the SARS situation, and their suggestions on prevention and control of the spread of SARS.
The Beijing Municipal Office for Foreign Affairs has arranged two meetings for foreign experts, inviting Chinese medical expertsto give advice on how to prevent SARS. The office also presented foreign experts with the English version of SARS-fighting bookletsand told them how to contact hospitals.
To support Beijing's efforts to fight SARS, Peter Leupp, chairman of ABB (China) Co., Ltd., on behalf of all the company's experts and working staff, donated 1 million yuan (more than 120,000 US dollars) to Beijing.
(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2003)
