GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Beijing erects roadblocks and shuts major hospital amid SARS scare

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BEIJING - China shut down a major hospital in Beijing and put more than 2,000 employees under observation for severe acute respiratory syndrome Thursday, as Hong Kong health experts said the disease may be even deadlier than originally thought.

Chinese police have set up roadblocks on routes out of Beijing, sealing off towns and counties in surrounding Hebei province to non-residents and carrying out spot health checks to try to stem the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars.

Visits to police barriers on Wednesday suggested a large scale and ambitious attempt to create at least a limited cordon sanitaire around the capital.

Beijing health authorities declined to comment on the roadblocks - which have not been publicly announced - but one official said transport police had secretly ordered inspections on main arteries as part of mobilisation against the deadly new form of pneumonia.

Police in full-body protective clothing and face masks at the Xianghe exit of the Beijing to Shenyang expressway were yesterday barring the way to most trucks and cars from Beijing.

"We are turning back vehicles that don't have urgent business in our area to keep out atypical pneumonia," said one police officer, adding that the action was expected to last at least three weeks. Such drastic measures underline the energy and resources now being mustered against Sars by the Chinese government, which had initially sought to play down the seriousness of the outbreak.

It also reflects Sars' continuing spread. Officials on Wednesday raised the official death toll in China by nine to 106 and the number of reported cases by 147 to 2,350 - with Beijing accounting for most of the rise in both.

At another roadblock between Beijing and Hebei, long-distance buses bound for Inner Mongolia were turned back while drivers with Beijing number plates lingered nearby in the hope of sneaking by later.

Some routes were less affected, with only a small proportion of vehicles travelling out of the capital on the Beijing to Harbin expressway being stopped by police.

Nurses checked selected drivers for fever - the key Sars symptom - and a waiting ambulance rushed any with high temperatures to a nearby hospital.

Strong action is not limited to the capital, however. In Shanghai visitors from affected areas will have their temperatures taken on arrival and put into quarantine if infection is suspected.

Propaganda officials in Shanghai were also showing pessimism, telling newspaper editors to prepare their readers for the worst about the spread of Sars in the ci ty.