China quarantined thousands of Beijing residents who have had contact with suspected carriers of SARS, sealing more than 2,000 health workers and patients inside the Beijing University People’s Hospital complex, in an effort to combat the disease.

Medical personal inside the People’s Hospital reported that more than 70 staff members were suspected of having SARS, forcing the quarantine of the entire facility.

“We’re very lonely here _ there’s no way out,” Shen Danhua, 42, deputy head of the pathology department, said by telephone. “It’s a strong step but maybe they should have been this serious earlier,” she said.

Authorities also imposed quarantine orders on homes, factories, and schools where people who developed SARS symptoms lived, worked, or studied.

China has the world’s highest reported cases of SARS, for a total of 2,422.

(via New York Times)