Three more SARS cases are confirmed in China

THREE suspected SARS patients have the disease, the Chinese government confirmed yesterday, raising to nine the number of people known to be infected in China’s latest outbreak.

The cases are limited to people who worked at Beijing's Institute of Virology where SARS samples are kept and others who had close contact with them. One person has died.

The World Health Organisation says that because China's cases are in such a limited group, they are not a public health threat.