SARS has killed 31 people in Toronto after a 60-year-old woman died from the deadly virus, but health officials said on Sunday they still cannot confirm if five more deaths are linked to the respiratory illness.

Seventeen people are in critical condition, the top health official in Ontario said, and there are 52 probable cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, up from 46 on Saturday.

"I don't want to leave you with the impression that we're optimistic," Dr. Colin D'Cunha, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, told a news conference.

He said it seems like SARS' second outbreak in Toronto is coming under control after the virus resurfaced nearly 10 days ago. Worldwide, SARS has killed more than 750 people and infected more than 8,300.

The outbreak has sent hospitals into a "new normal", with health care workers wearing masks, gloves, goggles and gowns to protect themselves.

Outside of hospitals, however, the city's three million residents remain unaffected by the infectious disease. There are no signs of masks in restaurants, public places or the subway.

More than 5,000 people remain in quarantine, mostly around Toronto, the epicenter of the SARS outbreak in Canada and the only place outside Asia where the illness has claimed lives.

"We're being hyper-vigilant," said Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public safety. He said the five deaths under investigation at a hospital in a Toronto suburb are not all from SARS, "and in fact we can't say any of them are from SARS at this time."

The new SARS outbreak in Toronto is linked to a 96-year-old man in a Toronto hospital who died on May 1 from the disease but whose illness went undetected for weeks, in which time he infected nurses, patients and visitors.

Medical officials say the disease spread as hospitals let down their guard after the initial SARS outbreak in March and April, thought to be over after no new cases were reported for 20 days after April 19.

The new cluster of cases has put Toronto back on the World Health Organization's list of SARS-affected areas, but the U.N. agency stopped short of recommending that travelers stay away from Toronto.

Health officials say they can link nearly all the new cases to the 96-year-old man, an encouraging sign that the disease has not spread randomly. They also say there are no signs that SARS had spread into the community.

The city is preparing to transfer patients with SARS symptoms to four Toronto hospitals to restrict its spread and relieve the strapped health care system.

D'Cunha said 174 people are being monitored for infection.

The outbreak has led nurses to charge that doctors did not pay attention to calls that they were noticing patients with high fever, difficulty in breathing and dry cough -- all SARS symptoms -- after rules were relaxed when the first outbreak was thought to be over.

Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, is calling for an independent review to determine why warnings of the latest SARS outbreak went unheeded by senior hospital staff.

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