Three suspected cases of SARS in the Chinese capital, Beijing, have now been confirmed, taking the number of victims of the latest outbreak to nine, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. All three newly confirmed cases of the highly contagious deadly flu-like SARS were linked to one viral disease laboratory in Beijing, it said on its Web site www.moh.gov.cn. Only one of the nine has died. Hundreds of people have been isolated for observation in the past few weeks, but hundreds of millions of travelers have been taking planes and trains undeterred for the week-long May Day holiday that ends on May 7. Nearly 800 people died of the potentially fatal illness worldwide after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome emerged in southern China in late 2002.
