Beijing: The killer epidemic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has claimed two more lives in China, taking the death toll in mainland to 60 and affected eight more, even as officials confirmed that the deadly virus has spread to the Northern province of Mongolia.

"Ten imported cases of atypical pneumonia have been found in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, of which two have died," the Official Xinhua news agency said quoting authoritative experts. This is the first time SARS has been reported from Inner Mongolia.

The 10 cases were all reported in the regional capital Hohhot. Two patients have recovered while others are still being treated.

The epidemic again reflects the disease's short-range contagion nature. Among the 10 patients, nine are from two families and one is a health care worker.

On April 11, China's Health Ministry said 58 people have died of SARS, while 1,309 people have been infected.

Meanwhile, in Guangdong province, where SARS reportedly originated has reported 86 new cases of the disease in the first 10 days of April, 40.7 per cent less than the same period in March, according to statistics from the health department of the province.

In the first week of April, four patients died while 120 recovered and were discharged from hospital.

During the period, the provincial capital Guangzhou, where instances of SARS are relatively high, reported 54 new cases, down 62.5 per cent from the first 10 days of March and an 18.2 per cent decrease from the previous 10 days, statistics show.

Besides Guangzhou, 32 cases appeared in other cities of the province, including 13 in Jiangmen, 10 in Shenzhen, two in Hu Izhou, two in Shanwei and one each in Heyuan, Fuoshan, Zhaoqing, Shantou and Zhanjiang.

By April 10, Guangdong had cured a total of 1,031 SARS patients, with a recovery rate of 83.2 per cent, up 4.2 per cent from the figure at the end of March, the report said.

On April 9, a World Health Organisation (WHO) investigative team, which had conducted interviews and studies in Guangdong province since April 3, presented its interim report on the SARS outbreak to Chinese government.

The team concluded that the health system in Guangdong responded well to the outbreak, but that health systems in all other provinces had less capacity to cope with the severity of the challenge.

The team also found evidence of "super-spreaders" in Guangdong, including one who is thought to have infected as many as 100 other persons. The outbreak is now thought to date back to at least November 16, when an initial case was reported in Fuoshan city.

According to WHO statistics released on April 11, 111 people have died and 2,781 cases of SARS infection have been reported from 17 countries in three continents.

PTI