The SARS Taskforce set up by the government of Macao to coordinate
preventive actions against the disease decided Thursday on tougher
measures as tourist arrivals are expected to rise over the
three-day Easter Holiday.
Although tourist arrivals are foreseen to be much lower than the
usual holiday season, the taskforce decided to hold a simulation of
an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in efforts
to enhance the coordination among government departments.
The taskforce will take a number of new measures in accordance with
advices given by the World Health Organization (WHO), such as
improvement of medical facilities and patients handling process in
hospitals, more active monitoring on tourists arrivals and better
protection for frontier personnel.
The Macao government has dealt with the SARS prevention and control
with a high transparency, which has been confirmed by WHO experts.
So far, no case of SARS infection is found in Macao.
(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2003)