The Legislative Council Select Committee's report on last year's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) praised Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa for acting decisively in taking measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

The report found that Tung was not only ready to consider drastic measures to control the spread of the disease, but was also the first one to call for the quarantine, if necessary, of family members of infected persons.

However, the report rebuked a number of government and Hospital Authority officials for the way they handled the outbreak and decisions they made in the course of the epidemic.

Unveiling the 434-page report yesterday, Select Committee Chairman C.K. Law said the report was different from the previous two which focused on the public health system.

He explained that since very little was known about the virus at that time, the committee had to remind itself time and time again that it had to consider the then situation with hindsight.

The committee based their conclusions on concrete evidence, praising and criticizing those who deserved praise and criticism as the case may be, Law said at a press conference.

The select committee singled out officials held responsible for their mistakes in specific areas, he said.

"But it is a political judgment for one to step down or not," said Law. "The committee feels it is for the government and public to decide."

The committee faulted ex-director of health Margaret Chan who "was responsible for not taking quick action to include SARS as an infectious disease by amending the law".

As for the chief executive's role, he said: "After Mr Tung had set up a SARS steering committee, he had all the way supervised the committee to tackle the situation seriously.

"His way of handling the situation was appropriate and so there is no need to comment negatively on the chief executive."

The report also praised health-care workers who worked extremely hard and were fearless in the battle against SARS.

It also commended these highly professional and committed health-care workers as one of the key strengths of Hong Kong's public health system.

In a statement, Tung thanked the select committee members for their efforts in conducting the inquiry.

The government will carefully study the findings and recommendations, including criticism against government and HA officials and will respond to the report as soon as possible, Tung said.

Select Committee member Cyd Ho said after the press conference that the committee chose to quantify the performance of the officials objectively in lieu of words like "condemn" and "regret".

Chan Kam-lam, of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, said Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food E.K. Yeoh had not committed any very big mistake.

But he suggested that Yeoh, as an accountable official, should resign today no matter how serious his fault was at that time.

Another Select Committee member Michael Mak agreed that Yeoh and Chan had made blunders. But whether an official has to resign depends on public opinion in the coming days, he said.

The SARS outbreak in Hong Kong ran from March to June 2003, infecting 1,755 people and claiming 299 lives.

(HK Edition 07/06/2004 page2)