Hong Kong is growing closer to meeting the conditions the World Health Organisation has set out before it will lift its travel advisory. 

In an afternoon videoconference, Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong told the WHO's Executive Director of Communicable Diseases, Dr David Heymann, that Hong Kong had been able to cap the increase in new confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome cases at a single digit since May 4.

"We recorded four new confirmed cases yesterday and five today. So, apart from meeting the criterion of exporting no SARS case, we are approaching the second criterion of recording fewer than five cases in three consecutive days," he said.

If the control measures are effective, the number of new cases remain low, and source of infection of cases can be traced, then the WHO will be convinced that coming to Hong Kong is safe, he added.

To further curb the spread of SARS in the community, the Department of Health will, starting from tomorrow, conduct initial assessment once there is a new confirmed case.

The assessment will cover the environmental conditions of the buildings concerned. The multi-disciplinary response team will be activated to carry out more in-depth investigations if necessary.

Compared with the current practice that assessment will be conducted to buildings with two confirmed cases, Dr Yeoh believed the revised strategy will help contain the spread of SARS more effectively.

He also revealed that at present, only 9% of the some 1,600 cases with their source of infection remain unclear.

This may be owing to the fact that some cases are not SARS-related, he said, adding that the WHO also share the same view.

In view of the difference between our discharge policy and that of other places, Dr Yeoh urged WHO to reconsider its criteria to require an overall active case number of 60 before lifting the travel advisory warning.

To minimise the risk of spreading the disease in the community, the Hospital Authority keeps patients in hospitals for an extra week after they have recovered. Therefore, not all SARS patients in Hong Kong hospitals are active cases.

Of the 399 patients currently in the hospitals, 76 are convalescing. More than 63% of the total of 1,683 SARS patients have recovered and were discharged as of today.

Dr Yeoh also briefed WHO on the analysis of local transmission. He noted that over the last 10 days, there were only three SARS cases whose exposure source had not yet been determined. Ongoing investigations include looking for other infections, and checking the patients' blood for coronavirus.

In past tests from previous cases who could not be linked to a known source of exposure, 52% were found not to have coronavirus.

The WHO agreed to discuss the issues again next week.  Dr Yeoh will attend the WHO's general meeting in Geneva next Tuesday to share experiences on tackling SARS.