The ASIAN FOOTBALL CONFEDERATION (AFC) has rescheduled several
tournaments that had been postponed due to SARS. This includes the
2003 World Cup Qualifying Tournament for Asia. It will now take
place 10-22 June, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The official FIFA news group for the 2003 World Cup at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/2003_FIFA_World_Cup updates daily.

Here is more from the World Health Orgaization on the situation...

SARS is the first major new infectious disease of the 21st century
and is taking full advantage of the opportunities for rapid
international spread afforded by a closely interconnected and highly
mobile society. The purpose of travel advisories is to reduce
opportunities for further international spread of what is a new,
severe, and poorly understood infectious disease.

Travel advisories are reviewed daily. Advice is issued on the basis
of a set of epidemiological criteria. The risk to international
public health, which is the principal concern for WHO, occurs when
the magnitude and dynamics of an outbreak allow an infected person to
slip past control measures and undertake international travel,
possibly seeding an outbreak elsewhere.

Situation in China
A total of 202 new probable SARS cases were reported across China
today, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3303.
Nine deaths were also reported today.

Probable SARS cases have now been reported from 21 of China's 31
provinces. An additional four provinces have reported suspected cases.

Beijing continues to report a high number of SARS cases, with 152 new
probable cases and 9 deaths reported today. China's capital city now
has a cumulative total of 1347 probable cases and 59 deaths.

China's largest number of cumulative cases remains concentrated in
Guangdong Province, where the SARS outbreak began in mid-November.
Only 10% of these cases are current. As 1201 patients have been
discharged and 51 have died, there are less than 150 SARS cases
remaining in Guangdong's health care system.

In contrast, the rapidly growing number of new cases in Beijing
imposes a heavy burden on the health care system and particularly its
hospital capacity. In Beijing, 86% of cases (1198 cases) are current.

The situation in western China continues to be of concern. New
probable cases in Shanxi (23) and Inner Mongolia (7) increase the
cumulative totals to 266 and 120 respectively.

WHO is working with local health authorities in Beijing to review and
improve the data needed to better monitor the SARS situation and
assess the success of current control strategies. The WHO team of
experts also visited hospitals which will soon be opened as SARS
referral hospitals to assess their level of preparedness.

Update on cases and countries
As of today, a cumulative total of 5462 probable cases with 353
deaths have been reported from 27 countries. This represents an
increase of 226 new cases and 24 deaths when compared with yesterday.

Of the 226 new cases, 202 were reported today from China, of which
152 occurred in Beijing. Due to difficulties of information
technology, figures received from Chinese authorities yesterday were
not included in yesterday's cumulative update.

The 24 deaths occurred in Canada (2), China (9), Hong Kong SAR (12),
and Singapore (1).