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High-tech van, infrared cams fight SARS
BEIJING, China -- China has deployed a high-tech van loaded with monitoring equipment to police spitting in its war against SARS, the official Beijing Evening News said. The vehicle is equipped with three cameras and a big viewing monitor. It can transmit pictures to the city's sanitation department within seconds, the paper said, without giving further details. It quoted an official as saying the truck would be used for crime prevention in the future. China has launched a campaign against the ancient but unhygienic habit of spitting to keep a lid on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which can be spread by infectious droplets. Spitters are fined 50 yuan ($6) in the cities of Beijing and Guangzhou. The tough stance taken by Chinese authorities appears to be slowing the spread of the disease. On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced just four new cases and four fatalities on China's mainland — a sharp drop from early May, when more than 100 new cases a day were reported. The mainland's death toll rose to 325, with 5,323 people infected. Caution spreadsThough Chinese authorities are warning against relaxing anti-disease vigilance, some schools are starting to reopen after being closed for a month. Fewer people wear surgical masks. Newspapers say traffic accidents are surging as drivers return to the streets. But signs of the country's fight against the disease are everywhere. White-masked young men still conduct health checks at entrances to residences and office buildings, some wearing aluminum protective gear resembling space suits. Suburban villages keep outsiders away, and department stores and government office buildings have installed infrared cameras to check visitors for signs of fever. Temperature monitoring systems installedIn Haidian, the Beijing district with more SARS cases than any other, some 30,000 investigators in 4,000 teams made rolling inspections of businesses, neighborhoods and work sites, district official Zhou Liangluo told reporters. Twenty patrols have the job of making continuous examinations of the many construction sites in the district, China's high-technology hub where many uninsured migrant laborers work. Each household in the district of about 2.2 million people had been given a thermometer and emergency contact numbers and all offices and businesses had to install temperature monitoring systems, he said. Difficult to change old habitsIn the Sanlitun bar district, chauffeurs Li Jun and Wang Gang snacked on popcorn washed down with Corona beers on the tree-lined street brightened by neon lights from other bars. "People don't seem to care anymore," said Li. "The disease is becoming less serious in the eyes of the people." Said Wang: "Besides, SARS is something you can't touch, you can't see. How can you escape it?" "The hygiene in the city now is better, but I haven't changed my own habits," he added, after loudly hacking up a gob of phlegm onto the ground. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.
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