The World Health Organisation has given full marks to Singapore for doing its utmost in fighting the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in the republic, said the Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia today.

The report quoted WHO senior official David Heymann as saying this after meeting Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong o­n the sidelines of the Asean Sars summit in Bangkok yesterday.

Heymann was quoted as saying that WHO believed Singapore's containment measures had begun to bring the incidence of cases down.

Thermometers for students

As a precaution against the killer disease, the Singaporean authorities also started distributing personal thermometers in primary schools today.

"Some 200,000 Primary o­ne to Four students received their personal oral digital thermometers o­n Wednesday, and along with them, a lesson o­n how to be socially responsible," said Channel NewsAsia.

The report said that the pupils were taught how to use their thermometers, record their temperatures and clean them when they are done.

The students will have to take their temperatures twice daily, o­nce at the start of school and after recess.

Twenty three people have died of Sars in Singapore - the world's third-highest number of Sars fatalities.

Panic in Beijing

Meanwhile, international news agency Reuters reported that an increase in the number of Sars cases in the Chinese capital Beijing has sparked widespread fear and in some areas panic-buying of medicines and staple foods.

The city's new mayor Wang Qishan also warned that the mass panic threatened social stability in Beijing, adding that "as the panic of the public has not yet been alleviated, a great deal of work is needed to ensure social stability."

Wang said the next week would be critical in determining whether the spread of the pneumonia-like Sars was being curbed.

Sars has killed 159 people in China and infected 3,460 since it emerged in the southern province of Guangdong late last year.

Toronto cleared for travel

Reuters also reported that WHO had lifted the travel warnings imposed o­n Canadian financial capital Toronto. Canada, the o­nly country outside Asia where people have died of the virus that has no cure at present, also promised tougher steps, including screening at its airports.

"We are delighted with the WHO's latest decision," o­ntario Health Minister Tony Clement was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The original WHO decision advising against travel to Toronto aroused howls of protest in Canada, which saw the warning hitting its economy

In the latest figures released by WHO, 5,542 people around the world were suffering from Sars, with 355 deaths. The most effected countries are China (including Hong Kong), Singapore and Canada.

Apart from these countries, there have been Sars-related deaths in Malaysia (2), Thailand (2), Philippines (2), Vietnam (5) and South Korea (1).