Chinese new year celebrations bring renewed danger of Sars spread

China's battle against the deadly Sars virus has been won, the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, said yesterday, a day after the country confirmed a further two cases of the disease.

His statement came before a week in which hundreds of millions of Chinese will travel across the country to celebrate the lunar new year with their families, a scenario described by a UN official as an "epidemiologist's nightmare".

The Vice-Premier, Wu Yi, who is also Health Minister, called on quarantine, railway and aviation officials to work together to prevent the spread of Sars. "The coming period will be critical for China's prevention of the disease, and more efforts are needed to closely monitor the epidemic situation," he said.

The latest cases in the Guangdong province, where the disease first emerged in November last year, included a waitress who worked in a restaurant serving stir-fried civet cat, a prime suspect in the spread of the virus.

The latest Sars alert in China coincided with the announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that it was hunting for what could be the first cases of humans infected by bird flu in the south of neighbouring Vietnam.

A hospital in the southern Kien Giang province said yesterday that a man showing the symptoms of high fever, cough, and low blood pressure similar to those seen in bird flu victims had died. A woman with similar symptoms was in critical condition. The WHO confirmed that all four victims caught the virus directly from a bird.