Six people in northern China have been jailed for inciting riots and using violence to stop anti-SARS work, state newspapers reported today, part of a government campaign to force compliance with disease-control restrictions.

Cut off from worried families and sleeping in their offices, hundreds of medical workers are isolated with their patients as Beijing closes off entire hospitals amid sweeping measures to stop the spread of the Sars virus.

Patients and 2,000 workers from a Beijing hospital that was hastily sealed were under observation Friday today for symptoms of the Sars virus, as fearful residents emptied grocery stores of rice, oil and frozen food in a bout of panic buying.

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

A major Beijing hospital was shut down today because of Sars, a day after UN health chiefs warned against travel to the Chinese capital and Toronto.