In China's rural areas, with the summer harvest period approaching, many farmers are facing a practical problem - shortage of laborers in the fields due to the impact on the movement of people because of SARS.

Tong Dequ, a farmer living in Gaotun village in Central China's Henan Province, was becoming desperately worried about the wheat in his fields.

All his children were working in Guangzhou and were not able to return home to lend a hand with the harvest.

It was then that a group of volunteers arrived to help Tong gather in his wheat, a crop which can count for up to half of his annual income.

"They arrived just in time," said the old man. "I will tell my children this good news, and let them be relieved in Guangzhou and not to come back until SARS (severe acute respiratory sydrome) disappears."

Tong is one of many whose immediate worries have been similarly assuaged. In Henan Province, many other farmers whose family members were either medical workers or suspected SARS cases have been given a helping hand.

Volunteers have also been equipped with harvesting machines by the provincial committee of Communist Youth League, which raised 180,000 yuan (US$21,690) to buy 100 machines to help the volunteers.

Incomplete statistics show that the number of young volunteers involved in the war against SARS has reached 12 million around the country so far, reported the Young Volunteers Initiatives Guiding Centre.

The Chinese mainland reported eight new SARS cases in the 24 hours to 10 am yesterday. And seven of those were from suspected ones, the Ministry of Health announced.

Among the new cases, five were in Beijing, one in North China's Shanxi Province, and two in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The country also saw two deaths caused by the disease, bringing the number of fatalities to 317 as of yesterday, and the total number of SARS cases to 5,316.

There are still 1,510 suspected cases, and 2,317 SARS patients receiving medical treatment in hospitals on the Chinese mainland.

In Hong Kong, to which the World Health Organization (WHO) has removed its travel warning, one more confirmed case of SARS was reported yesterday and that involved a health care worker at the Caritas Medical Centre, according to health official Margaret Chan.

Meanwhile, the Canadian city of Toronto was back on the map of SARS trouble spots on Monday after health officials there confirmed eight new cases.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2003)