Russia acts on travel as first case almost certain

RUSSIA: Russia banned sales of air tickets to China and closed several crossing points along the country's vast border yesterday, after officials said they were "almost certain" that the SARS virus had reached Russia.

Chief Medical Officer Mr Gennady Onishchenko said Mr Denis Soinikov (25) had all the symptoms of the pneumonia-like illness, and was in a serious but stable condition in quarantine in Blagoveshchensk, a city on Russia's 4,200km-long border with China.

But the lack of a definitive diagnosis of Mr Soinikov's condition added to fears that Russian officials - whose dislike of transparency is notorious - may be unwilling to give the nation full information on the presence of SARS.

Interfax news agency, which has excellent government sources, released and quickly withdrew a story yesterday saying Russia's first SARS case had been confirmed.

Mr Onishchenko, after promising to have Mr Soinikov's final test results yesterday, said he was still waiting to hear from a Moscow laboratory that received the samples several days ago.

Russian media reports say more than a dozen people here have been quarantined with suspected SARS, most of them along the largely porous Russian border with China which hundreds of traders criss-cross every day.

On the advice of the Health Ministry, aviation officials yesterday banned the sale of new airline tickets to China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, and advised airlines and travel agents to be ready to implement a total ban on travel to China.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov held an emergency meeting on SARS with ministers yesterday, but did little more than repeat instructions already issued by other officials - to close several border posts, deploy medical teams at train stations and airports, and reduce flights and trains between Russia and China.

Russia's TVS television showed people wearing surgical masks in Blagoveshchensk and other border towns, and medical officers boarding trains crossing into Russia from China and Mongolia to check for passengers with symptoms of SARS.

Dozens of trans-Siberian trains cross Russia and arrive in Moscow every day, carrying travellers and traders from Asia.