HONG KONG’S hospital authority chairman Dr Leong Che-hung resigned yesterday over last year’s Sars crisis - the second senior health official to do so in as many days.

One of three babies born to SARS-infected mothers in Hong Kong is now healthy and has been discharged from a hospital, officials said today.

Beijing’s new mayor denied speculation that the capital was about to be sealed off, but admitted today that its hospitals were overloaded with SARS cases as China and Hong Kong reported 18 new deaths.

Deaths worldwide from severe acute respiratory syndrome reached at least 100 today, as the main casualty China revealed that fatalities have been much more widespread than it had previously reported.

Hong Kong’s hospitals may be unable to cope with new cases of a deadly mystery disease coming in daily, the legislature’s medical representative said today - but he predicted that the illness could be contained in two to three weeks.