One person has died in Singapore from the respiratory illness that has sparked alarm around the world, bringing to 25 the worldwide death toll, health officials say.
Singapore authorities this week ordered nearly 750 citizens to remain at home in an attempt to contain the illness which has infected 69 people in the city-state of four million people.
"We can confirm one patient has died," said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, adding no other details were available. State TV said the patient was from Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which has not accepted new patients since Saturday.
Eleven people in Singapore had been in serious condition with the illness, and Singapore's schools were on high alert on Wednesday a day after around 2,000 students were sent home feeling unwell.
The killer virus has spread to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada and Germany after first showing up in southern China late last year. Suspected cases have been reported in the United States, Britain and Australia.
Although no students in Singapore have been diagnosed with the virus, schools sent home 2,000 students on Tuesday under guidelines to keep watch on children who appear sick, up from 700 on Monday.
"None of them have been identified as SARS cases," an education ministry spokeswoman told journalists, referring to severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Only one child in Singapore has been infected, a five-year-old boy. His 15-year-old sister has also shown pneumonia symptoms and the government had asked some 200 students in contact with her to stay home.
Many parents were taking no chances. Pre-schools reported a huge drop in attendance on Wednesday, while the government has shut one school for 10 days as a precautionary step. Calls are growing for more to be temporarily closed.
"For those of us with school-going children there is a lot to worry about," said Chitra Rajaram, a local newspaper columnist, who said she was keeping all three children at home.
Experts believe the sickness is caused by a new virus from the paramyxovirus family, a large group of microbes that includes germs that cause measles, mumps and respiratory infections.
Anger is mounting in Hong Kong, the epicentre of the outbreak, over what residents perceive to be a lack of urgency on the part of the government to halt rising infections. Nearly 300 people are infected there and 11 have died.