China reported four new suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases for the past 24 hours from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday, according to the Chinese Health Ministry's epidemic surveillance report on SARS released in Beijing Sunday.

The four suspected SARS cases were all in Beijing, putting the city's total SARS number to one diagnosed and five suspected ones. No new suspected or diagnosed SARS cases were reported from other places on the Chinese mainland.

The Ministry said the four suspected SARS patients have all had close contact with the Beijing diagnosed SARS patient surnamed Li. They are Li's parents, aunt and a female patient surnamed Xu who once lived in the same ward with Li.

Li's father is now in relatively stable condition, with a body temperature of 37 Celsius degree and no obvious changes on his chest X-ray. Li's mother has a body temperature of 37.4 Celsius degree and the inflammation shown on her chest X-ray is getting serious, according to the ministry.

Li's aunt, with a body temperature of 37.1 Celsius degree, is in relatively stable condition and her chest X-ray shows no obvious changes, the ministry said.

Xu is also in stable condition currently. Her body temperature is 37 Celsius degree and chest X-ray showed no clear changes.

So far no people in close contact with the four new suspected SARS patients have developed fever, the ministry said.

The ministry said Li is now in stable condition and has had normal body temperature for nine consecutive days. Yang, the 31-year-old suspected SARS patient reported on April 23, was also in stable condition.

The ministry said so far 337 people who had had close contact with the afore-mentioned cases have been put under medical observation in Beijing.

In Anhui Province, the diagnosed SARS patient named Song is recovering and none of the 133 people in close contact with her showed abnormal symptoms, according to the ministry.

Source: Xinhua