Henry, they are completely relaxed and think they've won in Beijing. kansascity.com
<Posted on Fri, Aug. 22, 2003
Beijing Not Looking Back on SARS
AUDRA ANG
Associated Press
BEIJING - The occasional bicycle bell cuts into the drowsy afternoon as Qiu Wei contemplates his next chess move. His opponent, Lin Qingjiang, sits across from him under the same leafy tree, enjoying the breeze from a nearby lake.
The friends have been playing regularly since SARS subsided and President Hu Jintao declared victory over the disease last month. Around them, the city is abustle: After an unsettling spell of eerily deserted streets, Beijing has come back to life in time to enjoy summer's waning weeks.
"It's almost like SARS never happened," said Qiu, a 20-year-old bar worker.
Beijing's sidewalks are brimming with shoppers and tourists, vendors and musicians and barbers - none wearing the surgical masks that covered faces everywhere at the height of the outbreak. Shuttered cinemas and karaoke bars have reopened to long lines. Banners encouraging the public fight against SARS are gone.
But international health experts say no one should be declaring total victory. "We have been successful in breaking the transmission of the virus between humans. But it doesn't mean that SARS is over yet," said Dr. Henk Bekedam, WHO's China representative.
Last week, to great fanfare, China's last two SARS patients were released from Ditan Hospital in Beijing, where half of the mainland's 5,300 infections and 349 deaths occurred.
"We have worked together. We have overcome fear," said Liu Jianying, Ditan Hospital's director. "Now we can conclude we have protected the people's health."
Hu's announcement July 28 appeared to be the final reassurance many needed that life - for now - is back to normal. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, Beijing's flagship sites, are once again full of camera-toting throngs. The capital's notorious traffic snarls are back, vexing millions. >
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