The "much expected" single-digit new SARS cases in Beijing, reported for the first time on Monday, indicated that measures taken in the capital have begun yielding results, a senior Beijing health official said yesterday.

　　In the daily report on the SARS situation nationwide on Monday, the newly reported cases in Beijing in a 24-hour period fell below 10 for the first time - seven to be precise, according to the Ministry of Health.

　　But Liang Wannian, deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, warned that fluctuations were possible because there were many factors regarding the disease that "we do not know about."

　　So a saw-like fluctuation pattern was expected in the future, meaning the figure is likely to turn to double-digit again, Liang said at a regular press conference on the SARS situation in Beijing.

　　Liang said the government and the people of Beijing should not let their guard down now, adding that the primary task of the anti-SARS fight is to contain or eradicate the epidemic at an early date.

　　Liang insisted that the city should continue the strategy of "leaving no suspected patients out."

　　"There's no need for us to under-report the number of SARS cases," he said.

　　With Monday's cases, Beijing has a total of 2,437 patients, according to the Ministry of Health.

　　But there might be patients with false negative or positive SARS symptoms, Liang said, attributing it to lack of unified definition of the new disease.

　　Meanwhile, Zhu Shanlu, deputy team leader of Beijing's anti-SARS team, said that efforts will be made to prevent a relapse of the flu-like virus among students and teachers when classes resume tomorrow.

　　Beijing schools have been closed for close to a month in a bid to control the spread of SARS.

　　The municipal government will accord top priority to the health and safety of students and teachers when they return to school, batch by batch and region by region in light of the situation, Zhu said.

　　To exclude the possibility of a relapse, students will go back to school gradually instead of in a whole batch from tomorrow, he said, adding that the city has "effectively contained" SARS in its education sector.

　　Beijing has 2.8 million school students. As of 10 am on Monday, the city reported 391 SARS cases among students and teachers while another 38 students and teachers had been discharged from hospitals upon recovery and 16 died, Zhu said.

　　The situation is also stable among Beijing's migrant workers, another local health official revealed.

　　However, Ji Lin, deputy director of the anti-SARS group, said this was no reason to relax because sporadic cases were still emerging at a few construction sites around the city.

　　Ji told a press conference yesterday that so far 184 pro-bable cases and 141 suspected cases of SARS had been identified among a total of more than 640,000 migrant workers in Beijing.

　　He said an additional 3,646 had been put under isolation for medical observation, adding that five construction sites had been sealed off due to major outbreak of SARS among workers there.

　　Ji said the Beijing municipal government had adopted major measures to prevent SARS from spreading among migrant workers, including strictly confining the workers' movement within the area of the construction sites.

　　Beijing will also step up quarantine measures for the large floating population as more people from outside have begun re-entering the city to find jobs or do business, the official added.

　　He said so far there has been no cluster infection among the floating popula-tion. By mid-May, more than 2.63 million people from outside Beijing lived in the city, some 600,000 less than the figure at the end of April.

　　Ji said Beijing would impose strict quarantine on the floating population as they enter the city, their residences in neighborhood communi-ties and places where they work or do business.