The World Health Organisation said today the fight against SARS had reached a crucial phase in China, where two more provinces were declared no-go zones and the death rate trebled.
Experts at the Geneva-based WHO have said China holds the key to halting the global spread of SARS, which has now claimed more than 500 lives and infected over 7,000 people in around 30 countries.
The WHO issued an advisory warning against all travel to Inner Mongolia and Tianjin, and extended the alert to Taiwan's capital Taipei, which has seen a surge in deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The WHO last month issued warnings against travel to Hong Kong, Beijing and the provinces of Shanxi in the north and Guangdong in the south, where the virus is believed to have originated in November.
The latest travel advisories came as the WHO said it was increasing its estimated overall death rate from SARS to 14 to 15 per cent from five or six per cent, citing more comprehensive data.
Five more deaths - including the first fatality in the financial capital of Shanghai - were announced in China today, taking the nation's death toll to 224 with 4,698 infections.
Since China ended a cover-up of the extent of its SARS crisis on April 20th, efforts to contain the disease have focused largely on the capital Beijing and built-up areas.
As well as China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, five SARS deaths have been reported in Vietnam, two in the Philippines and two in Thailand. The only country outside of Asia to record deaths is Canada, where 23 people have died.
Fear of SARS has spread to China's European neighbour Russia, which was preparing to implement a total ban on flights to China on today, when Russian health officials said they were almost certain they had detected the country's first case of the disease.
AFP