Wu issued the call at a meeting after she was briefed by officials on local authority efforts against the disease.

The State Council, or the central government, had dispatched 15 taskforces to supervise and inspect SARS prevention work in 31 provincial areas according to the requirements set by the central government.

Judging from the results, the vice-premier said, provincial governments had continued to improve their leadership and work to prevent the disease, and had formulated prevention plans as required.

She called on local authorities to maintain their efforts in preventing the disease, and to improve their measures and plans according to actual conditions, and set up a prevention mechanism in normal conditions.

Wu also urged government departments to explore ways to speed up improvements to the public health and medical systems.

China had curbed the outbreak of the disease in cooperation with the international community, but medical experts had urged the country to keep up its guard against possible future outbreaks.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)