BEIJING, April 14 (AFP) - The SARS outbreak was first recorded in Beijing on March 1, the capital's mayor was reported as saying Monday, almost a month before its existence was finally admitted.

The revelation adds weight to claims by a military doctor that the scale of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Beijing was covered up because it clashed with the annual sitting of China's parliament.

It also came as the World Health Organisation revealed another four people had died from SARS in China, bringing the total death toll here to 64.

Dr. Jiang Yanyong, 72, told journalists last week that shortly after the parliament session started on March 5 an elderly man was admitted to hospital 301, and after it was suspected that he had SARS he was transferred to hospital 302.

At hospital 302, he infected close to 10 doctors and nurses, and died shortly afterwards, Jiang said. His wife was also admitted to hospital 302 and also died within a short period of time.

"At this time, the health ministry called the leaders of all the hospitals to a meeting," said Jiang.

"The main contents of that meeting was that Beijing now has this disease, but in order to maintain discipline it is not to be made public. It is necessary to create stable conditions for the NPC."

AFP reported on March 19 that a man and his wife from northern Shanxi province had died from atypical pneumonia in Beijing's 302 hospital but health officials refused to confirm the deaths.

Hospital sources said at the time that the deaths occurred on March 7 and March 15 respectively.

Chinese authorities finally admitted three deaths and the existence of SARS in the capital on March 26. The NPC ended on March 18.

"The first SARS patient treated in a hospital in Beijing on March 1 has recovered," Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong said over the weekend, the China Daily reported Monday.

He said the 26-year-old woman was a native of northern Shanxi province and that her parents had died of SARS.

"The woman and some of her family members have recovered and will soon leave hospital, but her parents died of SARS due to their advanced age," he said.

Meng added: "The number of suspected SARS patients admitted to local hospitals is decreasing and the situation has been basically brought under control."

The remark conflicts with his comments Thursday when he said atypical pneumonia in Beijing was under "full control".

The health ministry says 22 people have come down with SARS in Beijing, of whom four have died, although doctors and nurses report the death toll and infection rate is much higher.

In this week's edition, Time magazine quotes a nurse at Beijing's Youan Hospital, one of four hospitals set aside to deal with SARS cases, as saying that there are "at least 100 SARS patients here, if not several hundred".

The hospital denied the claims Monday, saying it was "impossible".

A team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts meanwhile inspected health facilities in Beijing Monday, checking the capital's defenses against the epidemic.

The WHO requested an investigation following its concern about "management of the SARS situation by health authorities, particularly in relation to case reporting and contact tracing".

China has been criticised internationally for its slow response to the SARS crisis, which has killed nearly 140 people worldwide and infected over 3,000.


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