China has issued a decree aimed at ensuring officials cannot cover up an outbreak of a serious disease, as they did with SARS. The Cabinet decree, signed by Premier Wen Jiabao, orders officials to report any public health outbreak within two hours or face sacking or jail. Officials at each level of government must report cases to the level above until all information reaches the Health Ministry, said the decree splashed across state newspapers on Tuesday. ‘‘Government and health officials who cover up, delay reporting or report false figures will be demoted or sacked,’’ it said. ‘‘Those who cause an epidemic to spread and severely harm the health of the masses will be sacked. Those who violate the law will be held criminally responsible,’’ it said. Hospitals which cover up cases or refuse to treat patients will lose their licenses, the decree said, defining public health emergencies as serious epidemics, widespread unidentified diseases and food and industrial poisoning. Meanwhile, Chinese officials today claimed that the SARS epidemic had been brought ‘‘under control’’ in Beijing and denied reports of social unrest in the aftermath of the outbreak, even as quarantine was lifted on three hospitals and a residential neighbourhood. ‘‘We have adopted a large number of effective measures. We can see the incidences of the disease have clearly been brought under control,’’ Han Demin, executive deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, said. ‘‘Everyday, the number of new cases are clearly dropping,’’ he added. Beijing Deputy Mayor Zhang Mao said at a press conference on SARS that despite the disease, life was ‘‘normal and orderly’’ in the city. Zhang admitted that when the city of some 13 million people was caught unprepared by the spread of sars, there was panic among the residents. ‘‘But with the government’s enhanced efforts in publicising relevant information, such panic has gradually been reduced,’’ he said. ‘‘The best way to solve the problem is to show the public the result of the effective prevention and treatment of the disease,’’ he added. Authorities have lifted SARS quarantines on three hospitals and a residential complex, Xinhua news agency reported today.
