Press Release - May 19, 2003

The following is jointly issued by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR):

In Hong Kong, there is one new confirmed case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) today (May 19). This marks the lowest figure recorded since we started releasing statistics on infection cases. It is also the 16th day in a row that Hong Kong's daily infection cases were in single digits.

There is no SARS case involving healthcare worker today. The patient who is confirmed to have SARS had close contact with other SARS patients and was admitted to hospital earlier.

A total of 1213 patients have recovered from SARS and have been discharged from public hospitals. Of them, 10 were discharged today. There are now 187 active cases under treatment in hospitals, of whom 45 patients are in intensive care unit. Most of the patients currently in hospital are showing positive responses to the treatment protocol. In addition, 63 are recovering patients in convalescence and in preparation for discharge.

Four patients died in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital (AHNH), Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) and United Christian Hospital (UCH). This brought to 251 the total number of deaths relating to SARS in Hong Kong.

The deceased include two men and two women aged from 32 to 94. Their information is as follows: