Britain taken off Sars list by WHO after 20 clear days

Tim Rose
Saturday 03 May 2003 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Britain has been taken off the global list of areas affected by Sars but officials insisted yesterday that measures to counter the disease would not be relaxed.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) made its decision because no new cases of the virus being transmitted from one person to another in the UK had been reported for 20 days.

But the Department of Health warned against complacency and said there could still be further cases in this country. A DoH spokesman said: "Obviously, we welcome news that WHO no longer considers the UK as an affected area. However, we must not be complacent and our control measures remain as stringent as before to protect public health. We may still see more cases in this country but the key is to ensure that there is no onward transmission of Sars."

Britain was added to the WHO list on 11 April after a man was classified a "probable" case following close contact with a businessman from Hong Kong, who was later confirmed with Sars after returning home.

The Government's Health Protection Agency said the latest tally of probable Sars cases in Britain remained at six.

Sars has killed at least 413 people world-wide and more than 5,900 are said to be suffering from the virus.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in