Athletes from some areas of China and Canada will be allowed to travel to the Special Olympics in Ireland this month, it was announced last night.
It followed a lengthy meeting of the State's SARS expert group where it was decided athletes from regions of these countries "where local transmission" of the virus has not been reported by the World Health Organisation will be free to travel.
The decision is a dilution of the group's original and controversial decision of May 15th not to invite athletes from SARS-affected "countries" to the games. Now athletes will only be prevented from coming if they live in SARS-affected "regions" or "areas".
It was unclear last night how many athletes will now be travelling to the games from China and Canada. The areas of these countries with recent local transmission include Beijing and Guangdong in China, and Toronto in Canada.
Other SARS-affected areas, the expert group said, included Hong Kong and Taiwan, which means teams from these areas will also continue to be excluded.
Yesterday's decision by the group is its final one, with the games due to begin in 16 days.
It is understood some members of the group were against the decision.
In a statement, the group said it considered submissions from the Irish Special Olympics Committee and the Special Olympics International Committee that all athletes be allowed to travel once they had spent time in quarantine to ensure they were SARS-free.
The group said, however, that this was not feasible as the WHO would not be able to provide "an external validation of any quarantine proposals for delegates from SARS-affected areas".
It added that all delegations participating in the games would be asked to confirm in advance of travelling that they have not been in a SARS-affected area or in contact with a known SARS case in the previous 10 days.
In a statement, the organising committee of the games welcomed the decision to allow some athletes from the WHO list of SARS-affected countries to participate in the games.
"However, for those athletes who will not be given the opportunity to participate at the games, we question once again any decision that discriminates against Special Olympics athletes over and above any person or group of persons travelling to Ireland from these countries."
Meanwhile, talks aimed at bringing an end to the eight-week public health doctors' dispute remained deadlocked last night. They resume at the Labour Relations Commission this morning.