Taiwan dismisses SARS rise

TAIWAN brushed off a sharp rise in SARS cases yesterday as authorities in Canada quarantined 2,000 more people in a desperate effort to contain a fresh outbreak of the killer disease.

Taiwan reported 50 new cases of SARS, but officials quickly insisted the figure did not conflict with a World Health Organisation (WHO) assessment that the island's epidemic was in decline.

Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said 10 of the new infections had been recently reported while 40 had arisen from the reclassification of cases previously listed as suspected.