WHO declares Hong Kong Sars-free

The World Health Organisation has declared Hong Kong effectively free of Sars, after nearly four agonising months when the disease killed some 300 people in the city and devastated its economy.

As the news spread, excited schoolchildren ripped off their protective surgical masks and tossed them into trash bags, while brightly-clad samba dancers hired for the occasion shimmied their hips in the popular waterfront shopping belt of Tsim Sha Tsui.

The removal of Hong Kong leaves Beijing, Toronto and Taiwan still on the list of areas with the deadly respiratory disease, which has infected more than 8400 people and killed over 800 worldwide since spreading from China in February.

The epidemic has cost Hong Kong billions of dollars in lost business and left the city teetering on the brink of its third recession in six years.

"Our name has been removed from the list, but from experience everywhere else, we have to remind ourselves that this could come again," Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa told reporters at a news briefing at Amoy Gardens, a housing estate where hundreds of residents were mysteriously infected.

Medical experts, worried the disease could re-emerge next winter, also said residents must remain vigilant.

The WHO put Toronto back on its list of places with continuing new SARS infections just 12 days after it was taken off when more possible cases were detected.

Hong Kong was the second worst hit by SARS after mainland China and local leaders hope the WHO's move will provide a badly-needed vote of confidence which will lure back travellers. But economists said a real recovery was months off.

The WHO took Hong Kong off its travel advisory list late last month, but visitors have been slow to return.

"Tourists will not be back so soon as they already have made travel plans for the next few months. We may be able to see some recovery in the fourth quarter," said Daniel Chan of DBS Bank.

Travellers are only beginning to return to Vietnam, the first country in the world to be removed from the WHO list on April 28. "Most of the people who come back are business (travellers), at best the number of tourists is only 10 per cent of the pre-SARS level. Things might pick up in August but it won't be like before," said Tran Quoc Dzung, public relation officer at Saigon Tourist, the state-run travel organisation.

Hong Kong, which was close to mass panic at the height of the epidemic in late March, clocked 20 straight days on Sunday without a new infection, fulfilling WHO's condition for removal from its list.

Some 1755 people have been infected with SARS in Hong Kong since March and 296 have died. The mortality rate of nearly 17 per cent is far higher than the 6.5 per cent in mainland China, which was hardest hit by SARS, but scientists are not sure why.

Twenty-eight people are still being treated in hospital, 11 of them in intensive care.

Top government officials and tourism groups are expected to unveil ambitious plans later on Monday to get visitors back.

"We will have a huge round of promotions. We are giving tourists from Thailand discounts of up to 40 per cent and we are asking our agents there to push more aggressively for people to come and holiday in Hong Kong," said Paul Leung of the Hong Kong Inbound Travel Association.

However, a Hong Kong Tourism Board spokesman conceded: "It's going to be a few months before we get back to pre-SARS levels."

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd says it still has a long way to go to regain its break even level of 20,000 passengers a day.

"People are starting to move, but a big portion is not back yet," said a spokeswoman for the airline.

Cathay has been slowly restoring flights cancelled during the epidemic in anticipation of a recovery in passenger demand, but expects to operate just 71 per cent of its full schedule in July.

With business only trickling back, some retailers are in no mood to celebrate, preferring to wait and see.

"Nobody has been going out, nobody is shopping. Business fell by half and has not recovered at all," said an attendant at a puzzle shop who identified herself as Ms Yau. "We've cut prices by up to 90 per cent but sales and promotions will continue."

- REUTERS