China said Tuesday that it is concerned over a new case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) discovered in Singapore and vows to report immediately any new discoveries of the deadly disease in China.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan said the Chinese government is very concerned about this incident in Singapore, and will do all it can to prevent SARS' coming back and will report all related information in a timely manner.

China's Ministry of Health recently (MOH) made several announcements that the "zero" report mechanism on the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) remained unchanged since April 20 when the system was introduced.

"That means no matter whether there are SARS cases or not, reports are always requested," said Kong, explaining the mechanism.

"As far as I know, there were no probable or suspected SARS cases reported in Beijing as well as other places in China's mainland areas by Sept. 8," he said.

SARS is a very dangerous disease, and China's health and medical institutions at various levels have been taking measures to prevent it from recurring, Kong quoted the Ministry of Health as saying.

Information on this regard will be released by the Ministry of Health (MOH), he said.

( 10 September 2003, People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/)