Waitress is new China SARS case suspect

A WAITRESS hospitalised in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was declared the country's second suspected SARS case of the season yesterday, just as the first patient was pronounced recovered and released.

The 20-year-old waitress was hospitalised with a fever on December 31, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said she was under quarantine in Guangzhou's No 8 People's Hospital.

The announcement that she was officially a suspected case came just minutes after Xinhua reported that China's first SARS patient of the season, a 32-year-old television producer, left a Guangzhou hospital after being declared recovered.