Xie Zhenhua, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said emergency measures adopted in the country had resulted in the successful containment of any secondary contamination.

However, Xie said, the poor state of infrastructure facilities for the disposal of medical waste in China had become apparent during the SARS crisis.

The State Council has required the SEPA and the State Development and Reform Commission to formulate a plan on medical waste disposal.

An investment of over 7 billion yuan (US$846 million) will be made in the next two or three years to dispose of medical waste, said Xie.

At a press conference held by the State Council's Information Office, Xie said that some 650,000 tons of medical waste was produced in China each year.

The large amount of medical waste produced during the SARS outbreak had created problems in disposing of waste and preventing secondary contamination, he said.

The SEPA had issued five circulars, requiring stricter supervision of medical wastes, and the Government had allocated special funds to provide emergency facilities such as vehicles and incinerators to transport and burn medical waste, he said.

Xie also revealed that the Chinese government planned to invest20 billion yuan (US$2.42 billion) in the tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) to implement the plan to disposal hazard wastes.

Xie believed that the SARS outbreak would accelerate the plan.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2003)