The woman diagnosed with Beijing's first confirmed case of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2004 has fully recovered and was discharged from hospital on Tuesday night.

There were no new suspected or diagnosed SARS cases in the Chinese mainland in the 24 hours from 10 am May 4 to 10 am May 5, the Ministry of Health said in its daily news release yesterday.

At present, seven confirmed SARS patients - one in Anhui and six in Beijing - are still hospitalized, said the ministry.

The discharged patient is a 20-year-old female nurse at Beijing's Jiangong Hospital.

She had symptoms of fever, cough and trembling on April 5 and was hospitalized two days later. On April 14 she was transferred to the intensive care unit at Renmin Hospital affiliated with Peking University.

She was officially confirmed as a SARS patient on April 22. Then she was transferred to Ditan Hospital, a hospital specializing in infectious diseases in Beijing.

The nurse, surnamed Li, was released on Tuesday after she has had normal body temperatures for 18 days and met all other standards for release.

Over the next 10 days she will remain under medical observation, and she will undergo a complete check-up in two weeks.

At present, none of the people with whom Li had close contact have shown abnormal symptoms and 141 individuals have been freed from medical observation, said the ministry.

Among the six confirmed SARS patients in Beijing, only one is in serious condition and the rest are recovering, hospital sources said.