More than 400,000 children in the city trooped back to class in face masks on Monday following a seven-week school suspension to fight the spread of the deadly SARS virus.‘‘Remember what your teacher said? You must not hold hands or go too near your friends. You must not share food or talk when you eat,’’ graphic artist Aaron Chan told his kindergarten child. Once in school, the children were led to wash basins to clean their hands before teachers spent the rest of the day teaching basic rules of hygiene to students.Hong Kong, which has world’s second-highest number of SARS victims after China, suspended classes for 4- to 8-year-olds when the virus hit its peak at the end of March. Re-opening classes marked another step in the slow return to normality in the city. • China has received over $140 million in donations and material aid from foreign governments, including $8000 worth aid from India, and multi-national companies to combat SARS. • Taiwan’s healthcare system came under intense pressure on Monday as medical workers resigned en masse over the SARS outbreak and more hospitals were forced to suspend services. • Taiwan said it had no new SARS cases on Monday, but a health official said that did not mean the island was free of the deadly virus. • Chinese authorities told the WHO on Monday that hospitals had failed to report ‘‘a lot’’ of suspected SARS patients with milder symptoms of the disease. • China reports 12 new SARS cases, five more deaths. • Thailand on Monday offered to give $100,000 to any tourist who could prove he or she caught the virus while staying in the country.
