The World Health Organisation today (May 23) removed its recommendation that people should postpone all but essential travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong Province in China.

The recommendation was issued on April 2 in order to minimise the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, said she was pleased to note that due to the efforts of the local and national health authorities, with support from WHO, the outbreaks in Guangdong and Hong Kong were being contained.

In response, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Mr Tung Chee Hwa said: "We welcome the decision of the WHO on the travel advisory. It is a very good decision for Hong Kong.

"What we have achieved so far has not been easy. It is as a result of tremendous effort by all the citizens of Hong Kong. For this I am truly grateful.

"But we need to continue our efforts because our aim must be that every day that goes by there should not be any new cases of SARS. And eventually we will successfully remove Hong Kong from the list of affected areas.

"At the same time we have to understand that this is a new virus, there are still some areas which we are not very clear on, so we need to be really on guard at all times. And the most important thing is really to get on with all the measures that we have already in place to ensure that the virus does not spread.

"At the same time, we shall be working very quickly to announce the names of the committee we are forming to learn from what we have done in the past and combine the experience we have learned together with a CDC-type organisation we are going to build, and to see how we can work together to build a better public health structure that will enable us to do a better job in fighting future epidemics.

"What we have achieved has not come easily, it is an effort of all the people of Hong Kong, and we should treasure what we have achieved."