SARS has been brought under control in east China's Anhui Province, local health authorities announced Monday.

According to the SARS prevention and control regulations by theChinese Ministry of Health, the SARS outbreak in Anhui, beginning in late April, has been put under control, according to a spokesperson of the Anhui Provincial Health Bureau.

The first confirmed SARS patient in Anhui was discharged from hospital Monday morning after recovery.

The spokesperson said that progress in four aspects indicated that SARS has been controlled in the province. First, the province's only patient, surnamed Song, has left the hospital after havinga normal temperature for 17 consecutive days. She will continue tobe observed at home for two weeks.

Second, the five people who had close contact with her and developed a fever were isolated and went through lab inspections and have all recovered.

Third, by May 7, all the 155 people who had close contact with Song had been removed from isolation and no abnormal symptoms had been found. The health tracking of another 90 people having casualcontact with Song proved they are healthy.

Fourth, no new cases were found, and no medical workers and other people in contact with Song during her treatment were found infected. The province has reported no new confirmed or suspect SARS cases.

The spokesperson said investigations showed that the two confirmed SARS patients in Anhui, -- Song and her mother who died on April 19, contracted the disease outside Anhui, possibly in thelab in Beijing where Song had worked.

Song was studying at the Beijing-based Research Institute of Virus Diseases under the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention andControl (CDC) from March 7 to 22. When Song went back to Hefei, capital of Anhui, by train on March 23, she felt ill and had a fever. After medical treatment, she felt better, but the fever remained high.

She was diagnosed a SARS patient on April 23.