Singapore is likely to be the next country to be taken off a list of Sars-affected areas as it declared a cluster of suspected cases to be due to a flu infection and not the deadly virus.

In a Singapore Straits Times report today, health authorities in the republic declared they were "100 percent sure" that 54 patients at a mental hospital had not fallen ill of the atypical pneumonia disease.

Singapore, which last reported a probable Sars case o­n April 27, had expressed cautious optimism that it was o­n the way to being Sars-free until the suspected outbreak at the mental hospital last Tuesday.

With the exclusion of these cases, the republic would have passed a 20-day period during which no new Sars cases have been reported locally.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had set a 20-day prerequisite period for a country to pass without new infections before its outbreak could be declared as contained.

Cases abroad

However, even as Singapore authorities start discussions in Geneva to have its name removed from the WHO Sars-affected areas list, Malaysian authorities have expressed their dissatisfaction with the screening measures put in place by the republic's health authorities.

Yesterday, Health Ministry deputy director-general Ismail Merican criticised Singapore for failing to detect flight passengers displaying Sars symptoms - two of whom later travelled to Kuala Lumpur.

Ismail said Singapore health authorities should have stopped such passengers from boarding aircrafts as they might continue to spread the Sars illness to other countries.

The two foreign nationals - o­ne Japanese and o­ne Bangladeshi - have since been hospitalised in Malaysia o­n suspicion of having contracted Sars in Singapore.

Furthermore, the latest probable Sars case in Malaysia was reported o­n May 9, involving a chef working in a Singapore hotel while o­n Wednesday, the ministry said two more suspected Sars cases were identified among individuals who recently visited Singapore.

Taiwan crisis

Meanwhile o­n the global front, the WHO continues to caution against all but essential travel to Hong Kong, Taiwan and several parts of China, namely Beijing, Guangdong, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Tianjin.

As of yesterday, China reported 28 new cases of Sars while Hong Kong identified another four cases.

But just as the number of new cases in mainland China and Hong Kong drop significantly over the past week, neighbouring Taiwan appears to be undergoing its worse phase of infection.

Updated figures today found Taiwan with its biggest o­ne-day jump in infections of 40 new cases, topping Saturday's record of 36 new cases. Four persons were also reported to have died today.

Among other countries with new cases of infection within the past week are Australia, India, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.

The new infections raised the tally of Sars cases worldwide to 7,771 with a death toll of 623 individuals.