China is conducting emergency safety checks at Sars laboratories nation-wide after a leak in Beijing spawned a web of infection that led to the first reported death from the virus since a major outbreak last year.
China has also stepped up surveillance of passengers for Sars before a week-long holiday starting on May 1, when millions of people are expected to travel by air, rail and road.
Experts from the World Health Organisation will arrive in the capital, Beijing, this week to help authorities investigate the outbreak and prevent another.
Scientists had sealed off laboratories at the National Institute of Virology in Beijing, where the 26-year-old student is believed to have caught the deadly disease while doing research involving live samples of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus.
WORLD IS BETTER PREPARED: WHO: The World Health Organisation (WHO) believes the world is better prepared to deal with a possible outbreak of Sars this year, the head of the agency said in Melbourne on Monday.
WHO Director-General Lee Jong-Wook was speaking in Australia just days after China reported the first death apparently due to a recurrence of the potentially deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome since a major epidemic of the virus last year.
He said there was no need to impose a quarantine or issue a travel advisory for any countries at this stage.
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