Meanwhile, in China....

BEIJING, April 30 — In a live, televised news conference today the new acting Mayor of Beijing called the SARS epidemic severe and uncontrolled as he sought to convince a panicky public that the battle against the dangerous, fatal new disease is effectively joined at last.

[...]

Beijing imposed stringent quarantine measures only in the last week, as the reported number of confirmed SARS cases in Beijing was zooming 10 days ago from below 350 to 1,440 today, not including a similar high total of suspected cases.

About 9,000 city residents have been put in isolation because of possible exposure to the infection, officials reported this morning.

The city's public health agencies were overwhelmed by the sudden, initially denied outbreak and still are unable to perform vital analysis of how fast the virus is spreading and where.

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