The third Chinese patient to be diagnosed with SARS this year left hospital today on the heels of two others recently discharged with clean bills of health.
The 35-year-old businessman left a hospital in the southern city of Guangzhou only four days after China confirmed he had the flu-like disease, and just in time to celebrate the Lunar New Year tomorrow.
"None of the 28 people in contact with him has developed fever or shown other abnormal symptoms and all of them have been removed from isolation and medical observation,"
China's health ministry said.
The first confirmed patient this year, a 32-year-old television producer, went home two weeks ago. A 20-year-old waitress who worked in an exotic game restaurant was released on Saturday.
SARS first emerged in Guangdong in late 2002 before spreading to more than 30 countries, infecting about 8,000 people and killing nearly 800.
But none of the three cases this year have been infectious.