FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on the spread of SARS. Chinese health officials report five additional deaths from SARS and 85 new cases, with most of them in Beijing. CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver is on the telephone from there. And Lisa, it seems as though just when China pronounces it has things under control, it really doesn't.</s>LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a pattern of a lot of optimism on the part of Chinese officials and then the World Health Organization warning that maybe it's too early to tell what's really going on with the disease. And indeed, the World Health Organization did the same today, saying that it is too early to tell as cases are on the decline in Beijing, despite a relatively -- the past two days, having a relatively low number of cases in the capital. Now, despite this, Beijing officials were yesterday optimistic that the SARS upswing will soon decline. Now, World Health Organization also put out a statement today in which it set the course and direction that SARS is taking is far from clear in China, in part, due to unclear numbers. Specifically, half the numbers for SARS cases in Beijing have had no information attached to those numbers on previous contact with the SARS patients. In other words, it's hard to tell where and when somebody may have come into contact with the SARS virus and therefore track where the disease is going geographically in the country. The World Health Organization added that this discrepancy could be because Chinese medical workers are not trained to ask those questions when they cake in the information. And World Health stressed that there is no indication, really, that Chinese officials were hiding information at this point; it's simply a case of incomplete information. The World Health Organization's representative in China met with Beijing's acting mayor yesterday. The mayor then agreed that more information was needed, and to that end, a team of World Health Organization experts are in Beijing now, working with the Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to try to work on those numbers and come up with more information that will lead to conclusions about what's happening with this disease -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Lisa Rose Weaver, thank you very much for joining us on the telephone there.
Chinese Officials Report 5 More SARS Deaths