The 32-year-old television producer who was confirmed as a SARS patient on Monday in south China's Guangdong Province has fully recovered and will be discharged from hospital tomorrow.

　　Tang Xiaoping, president of the No. 8 People's Hospital in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, where the man has been treated since late December, said, "The patient has had a normal temperature since December 24."

　　The man has met the three standards set for a SARS patient to be discharged from hospital in China: Disappearance of shadows on the lungs, loss of accompanying symptoms and no fever for over a week.

　　In Shanghai, wildlife protection officials started a citywide inspection yesterday to see whether any civet cats exist in the city. So far, none have been found at local markets or farms by officials.

　　The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau launched a similar campaign, inspecting more than 4,500 food vendors in a single day. They were also unable to find any civet cats.

　　Authorities in Guangdong Province are slaughtering the animals after researchers found evidence linking them to SARS.

　　In May, officials at the Shanghai Wildlife Conservation Office found 18 civets raised on two licensed farms, one in Qingpu District and the other in Fengxian District.

　　Officials banned the two farms from selling the animal, which were all subsequently killed.

　　"We will watch the market closely to ensure no civet cats are available," said Tang Chendong, a bureau official.

　　At Tongchuan and Huxi markets, where many restaurants buy sea food and poultry in large quantities, most vendors have given up selling wild animals as few restaurants are interested in buying them, though the country lifted a ban on exotic animal farming last August.

　　Meanwhile, the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said it has dispatched extra officers to check goods and animals coming into the city, in light of the SARS case in Guangdong.

　　In addition, the bureau is preparing facilities to quarantine inbound pets, which it says will be more secure than previous practice of confining them within the owners' home for one month.

　　"Anti-SARS measures have become part of our routine work," said Fang Yong, an official with the bureau.

　　Anyone going abroad or coming from overseas has to undergo a body temperature test. Those with a temperature over 38.5 degrees Celsius will be sent to a designated hospital for further testing, officials said.

　　The phones are once again ringing off the hook at local travel agencies, but not because people are looking to book trips.

　　The callers are mostly concerned about conditions in the Philippines, where a suspected SARS case was recently reported.