BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday removed Beijing from its list of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-infected areas and lifted its travel advisory against the city.

The decisions took effect immediately, Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, announced here at a press conference jointly held by WHO and China's Ministry of Health.

"The WHO has decided that the travel advisory against Beijing is lifted with immediate effect," he said. "The WHO concluded thatthe risk for travelers to Beijing is now minimal."

He also announced that Beijing was removed from the list of areas with recent local transmission of SARS virus, "because the WHO concluded that the chain of human-to-human transmission in Beijing has been broken."

Most of SARS cases in the Chinese mainland now can be traced back to known probable cases and the isolation period of Beijing'slast SARS patient has been longer than 20 days, Omi said.

Based on "careful analysis" of data provided by the Chinese government, "most of the cases reported are now traced back to known probable cases," Omi said while explaining why the UN health agency withdrew its previous concern over some SARS cases with unclear transmission in China.

It was on May 29 that Beijing's last SARS patient was put into isolation, which has been well beyond the 20-day period required by the WHO to remove a location from the list of areas with recent local transmission, Omi said.

The patient was treated as a suspect case until June 11 when the case was clinically confirmed as SARS, added Gao Qiang, vice-minister of health of China.

SARS has infected 5,326 people and killed 347 on the Chinese mainland so far. In Beijing alone, a total of 2,521 SARS cases have been recorded, with 191 fatalities but reported no new SARS cases for consecutive 13 days as of Tuesday.

The WHO issued a travel advisory on April 23 against non-essential travel to the Chinese capital.

"Today's development is a milestone for the fight against SARS not only in China but also the world, because from today the WHO has no more advisory against anywhere around the world," he said.

Meanwhile, the WHO official called for continued vigilance against the disease in spite of excellent achievements. "Surveillance has to be maintained for at least one year," he said.     

Gao Qiang said that China's life order has returned to normal and it is now safe to travel to any place in the country.

"China' s efforts in fighting against SARS have been recognizedby the international community and the WHO, and marks the thorough lifting of travel advisory to any province or municipality on the Chinese mainland," Gao said, referring to the WHO decisions.

He stressed that the WHO decisions indicated that China's efforts in fighting SARS have achieved a significant, but not easy,victory.

China will establish an effective epidemic reporting system that will cover various infectious diseases, Gao said, noting thatunder such a system the public health department can timely collect, analyze and report information about any disease that is highly infectious and poses severe danger to human health.

The reporting system will also cover measures adopted by the government and its requirement in controlling diseases, it will caution the public to pay attention to self-protection whenever epidemic cases are found, he said.

Gao said that information exchange with the WHO is a very important part of the system, which is a very effective way in controlling epidemic diseases.

Omi said the WHO will carry out cooperation with China mainly in three aspects, including the study on effective surveillance and diagnose measures, the searching of the origin of the SARS virus and the improvement of Chinese health-care system.

The Chinese health authorities are greatly concerned about the tasks to successfully produce SARS vaccine, fast diagnosed test kits and SARS drugs, and it is a vital scientific and technological research job that relied heavily on scientists' continued efforts, Gao said.

But time is needed to make technical breakthroughs in developing the vaccine and drugs for SARS, the vice minister said.     

Gao noted that the measures proven effective in fighting SARS should be kept in place and the government and the people should keep vigilant before technological breakthroughs were made to finally defeat SARS.

Gao said that Omi and Chinese Health Minister Wu Yi, during their meeting Tuesday in Beijing, both stressed importance of closer international cooperation to make technological progress to claim an eventual human victory over SARS. Enditem