In Canada, a suburban Toronto high school was closed and its 1,700 pupils and staff placed under quarantine after a classmate showed symptoms of SARS. More than 5,000 people in the Toronto area have now been told to stay home for 10 days.
The U.N.'s World Health Organization told Canada to broaden its definition of SARS cases after concerns that a definition adopted Monday has led to an incomplete accounting.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien insisted today that Toronto was safe to visit.
The Russian, a resident of Blagoveschensk near the Chinese border, had been hospitalized three weeks ago and placed under observation as a suspected case.
Gennady Onischenko, Russia's chief epidemiologist, told the Interfax news agency Denis Soynikov's "official diagnosis is atypical pneumonia," as SARS is known there. Soynikov had lived at a dormitory used by Chinese citizens, from whom he had picked up the viral disease.
Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization, Taiwan has reported 22 new probable cases of SARS and five new deaths, which continues a downward trend that began earlier this week. The large number of cases reported last week were due in part to a change in reporting procedures, WHO officials said, as hundreds of patients in the "pending" category were investigated and then either excluded or reclassified as suspect or probable cases.
This "welcome development" is due to "improved infection control in hospitals, including better procedures in emergency rooms and use of protective equipment," the WHO said in a written statement. "A good level of screening, aimed at detecting and isolating patients promptly, is also working to make [Taiwanese] hospitals safe for patients and staff."
To date, more than 90 percent of SARS cases in Taiwan have been linked to the hospital setting.
Taiwan has established 100 fever clinics and will open more soon. The facilities are meant to ease overcrowding in emergency rooms as more and more concerned residents seek urgent medical attention, the WHO reported. Because of these measures, the agency said it "is confident that the number of cases in Taiwan will continue the present decline, as has been the experience at other outbreak sites."
To date, Taiwan has reported a cumulative total of 610 probable cases and 81 deaths.
Worldwide, according to the WHO, a total of 8,240 probable SARS cases have been reported in 28 countries, with 745 deaths. These figures represent 30 new cases and 10 more deaths since Tuesday. The new deaths occurred in China (4), Hong Kong (1) and Taiwan (5).
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