Beijing has "no necessity" to under-cover SARS cases though there might be false ones, said a municipal public health-care official Tuesday.
Liang Wannian, deputy director of the Beijing's public health bureau said that at a press conference.
The primary task of the anti-SARS fight in China is to contain or eradicate the epidemic at an early date, Liang said, noting that requires the city to continue the strategy of "leave no suspected patients out".
"There's no necessity for us to undercover the number of SARS cases," Liang said.
Beijing reported 7 new SARS cases Monday and the accumulative SARS number in the city reached 2,437 as of May 19, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
But there might be patients with false negative or positive SARS symptoms, Liang said, attributed that to the lacking of unified definition on the new disease.
"No one can be 100 percent sure that the diagnoses are all correct," Liang said.
The health-care sector of Beijing will "strictly follow" the definition issued by the MOH and the State Council, Liang said.
Beijing will try its best to meet the standard of containing the disease published by the MOH and the State Council, Liang said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2003)
