Top health officials in Hong Kong came under fire on Monday from a legislative enquiry into the government's handling of a SARS outbreak that killed nearly 300 people last year.
The critical report is likely to put more pressure on the city's Beijing-backed administration, days after hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand more democracy and air grievances against the government.
The report, which took about eight months to compile, criticised key health officials, including Secretary for Health Yeoh Eng-kiong, former Director of Health Margaret Chan and Hospital Authority Chairman Leong Che-hung.
Both Yeoh and Leong apologised to the people of the city and disease victims and pledged to improve the medical system to ensure it can cope with any future outbreak.
"I accept responsibility fully as a principal official," Yeoh told a news conference after the report was released. "I offer my deepest and most sincere apologies to the people of Hong Kong."
Yeoh and Leong have repeatedly rejected public calls to resign, while Chan has moved on to another job.
But the report contained rare praise for embattled Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa, for setting the task of containing and controlling the spread of SARS as his government's top priority.
The praise could prove contentious, as Tung had suffered fierce public criticism for the administration's handling of the health crisis.
"I believe the report will have some negative political impact (on the government)," said Timothy Wong, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The Legislative Council report was the third enquiry into the government's handling of the SARS outbreak. Two previous reports, commissioned by the government and the Hospital Authority, did not single out any officials for blame.
Families of victims have accused top officials of being late to warn the city's 6.8 million residents about the outbreak and of not acting quickly enough to contain it.
Visitors to Hong Kong unknowingly spread the disease to other parts of the world. Eventually, SARS spread to 30 countries, infecting more than 8000 people and killing around 800.
Hong Kong was one of the worst-hit areas with nearly 1800 people infected, costing billions of dollars in lost sales, and pushing the economy into its third recession in six years.
The inquiry faulted Yeoh's performance in the fight against SARS, saying it was "not satisfactory" in some aspects.
It also said he "did not show sufficient alertness" to the potential danger when an outbreak of atypical pneumonia was reported in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong a few months earlier.
The virus, which later became known as SARS, spread to Hong Kong in early 2003.
The report criticised Yeoh for giving the public "confusing and misleading" messages about the spread of the disease.
The panel also criticised authorities for admitting new patients to a hospital ward that it said was the "epicentre" of the outbreak of the then unidentified disease.
"Placing a newly-admitted patient in a 'dirty' ward would expose
that patient to the risk of contracting the disease," the report
said.
