Medical staff at some Toronto hospitals, fearing they let their guard down a few weeks ago and allowed SARS back into a city that thought the battle was over, have put face masks back on and donned two layers of gloves.

The World Health Organization Monday restored Toronto to its list of SARS-affected areas, just 12 days after it had been taken off.

Masks first came off in mid-May in all hospital departments except SARS wards, because officials thought that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome had stopped spreading.

But doctors now think the mystery virus lingered in at least one hospital ward for weeks, infecting patients, nurses and visitors.

"I think it's true that some hospitals around the city perhaps eased up on either screening or surveillance, or some of the precautions," said Dr. Andrew Simor, chief of microbiology at Toronto's Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Center.

The latest outbreak started with a 96-year-old man, who died on May 1. Doctors never suspected SARS. Now they think he had the disease and spread it to other people, one of whom may have infected staff at a rehabilitation hospital.

Simor said the first patient's case was "very difficult to recognize."

Twenty seven people have died from SARS in the Toronto area, the only place outside Asia where the virus has killed people.

MORE IN QUARANTINE

Medical officials told a Toronto news conference Tuesday that Ontario, Canada's most populous province, had 12 active probable cases of SARS, one more than Monday.

They said the number of people in home quarantine climbed to 3,442 from about 2,200 Monday.

"There's no evidence to date of community transmission," said Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief officer of medical health.

But he warned that further cases could arise in the next several days among people who were exposed before control measures were put in place.

There have been 145 probable and 144 suspected SARS cases in Ontario since the virus hit the province in mid-March. Of those 229 have recovered from the disease.

The outbreak means masked and gloved staff at all hospitals around Toronto check all visitors for symptoms of respiratory illness before they enter.

D'Cunha earlier told Reuters that patients with symptoms of respiratory illness will be monitored regardless of whether they are in an infection unit or another ward.

"The expectation is that if you are dealing with a respiratory patient, you should practice infection control. That's the new normal," he said.

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