China widens Sars quarantine nets to sever infection chain

Four teams of World Health Organisation experts were due in China this week to help the government to investigate the laboratory accident, to track down people exposed, control infection in hospitals and monitor the situation in the eastern province of Anhui, where the woman died.

The WHO lauded the widening quarantine, saying it showed the government was taking the right steps to check the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome before the week-long public holiday starting on May 1 when millions will travel.

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"This is still not a significant public health threat," Beijing-based WHO spokesman Bob Dietz told Reuters.

"We still feel we know the initial source of infection and we've been able to follow closely the chain of transmission."

All the cases diagnosed in the most recent outbreak -- two confirmed and six suspected -- were traceable to the laboratory.