China wakes up to SARS crisis

China reported a jump in deaths from the pneumonia-like Sars virus today, with a nearly tenfold increase of cases in Beijing revealed on Sunday.

Officials also cancelled a major holiday – the week-long May Day break, when tens of millions of Chinese travel and pump money into the economy.

Just a couple hours after reporting the higher Sars figures, the official Xinhua News Agency announced that Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong had both been sacked from powerful Communist Party positions.

The developments came days after China’s top leaders sternly warned officials to report Sars cases accurately.