Hong Kong dropped from Sars list

The World Health Organisation declared Hong Kong effectively free of Sars yesterday after nearly four agonising months in which the disease killed nearly 300 people in the city and ravaged its economy.

The former British colony, which was close to mass panic at the height of the epidemic in late March, clocked 20 straight days on Sunday without a new infection, fulfilling WHO's condition for removal from its list.

As the news spread, excited schoolchildren ripped off their protective surgical masks while brightly clad samba dancers hired for the occasion shimmied their hips in the waterfront shopping and tourist belt of Tsim Sha Tsui.

"Four, three, two, one... hurray," screamed dozens of kids at one school as they counted down to the WHO announcement, which had been expected at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT).

"Bye bye!" one schoolgirl cried out in glee as she dumped her mask into a trash bag.

The removal of Hong Kong leaves Beijing, Toronto and Taiwan still on the list of areas with the deadly respiratory disease, which has infected more than 8,400 people and killed over 800 worldwide since spreading from China in February.

The epidemic has cost Hong Kong billions of dollars in lost business and left the city teetering on the brink of its third recession in six years.

"Our name has been removed from the list, but from experience everywhere else, we have to remind ourselves that this could come again," Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa told reporters at a news briefing at Amoy Gardens, a crowded housing estate where hundreds of residents were mysteriously infected.

Medical experts, worried the disease could re-emerge next winter, also said residents must remain vigilant. The WHO put Toronto back on its list of places with continuing new Sars infections just 12 days after it was taken off when more possible cases were detected.

Hong Kong was the second worst hit by Sars after mainland China and local leaders hope the WHO's move will provide a badly needed vote of confidence which will lure back travellers. But economists said a real recovery was months off.

The WHO took Hong Kong off its travel advisory list late last month, but the Hong Kong Tourism Board said it would take about a year for tourism to return to pre-Sars levels.