The health ministry today reported a new probable Sars case involving a chef working in a Singapore hotel, after a lull of more than two weeks since its last case.

The 31-year-old man fell sick o­n his return from the republic but is in a stable condition after being hospitalised in Perak yesterday, said the health ministry's deputy director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican.

This brings the number of probable cases in the country to seven, of whom two have died, four have been discharged and o­ne is in hospital, Ismail was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

The ministry yesterday dropped a 28-year-old woman earlier diagnosed as a probable Sars cases from the list after she was found to be suffering from another disease.

Entertainment manager sick

It has said that the worst of the Sars outbreak appeared to be over, with the last probable case involving a pilot who was hospitalised April 23.

Ismail today said another new suspected case has also been detected involving a 25-year-old entertainment manager, who fell ill after a trip to Singapore.

Despite more cases here involving travellers to Singapore which has seen 27 deaths out of 204 cases, he noted there has not been fresh cases in the republic over the past few days and hailed this as a "good sign" for Malaysia.

Tens of thousands of Malaysians cross over to the city-state daily to work and screening every traveller at their land border is virtually impossible. -- AFP