The Hospital Authority plans to relax its restrictions on hospital visitors in a progressive manner in August.

Speaking in the Legislative Council this morning, the authority's Director Dr Ko Wing-man said hospitals will continue to impose restrictions on the number of visitors and visiting time. Visitors still have to register their personal particulars.

There will also be a reporting mechanism to ensure that all hospitals are able to step up their precautionary measures once the authority receives any report of SARS cases.

Turning to measures to prepare for the possible re-emergence of SARS later in the year, Dr Ko said one of the mid-term measures is to enhance the facilities of nine major acute hospitals identified by the authority. They will then be able to provide isolation rooms for SARS patients.

The authority will also consider upgrading the isolation facilities of other hospitals, if necessary.

Speaking at the same meeting, Deputy Director of Health Leung Pak-yin said the department plans to enhance the system of reporting infectious illnesses between Hong Kong and the Mainland.

The two sides are considering expanding the list of notifiable diseases.

They are also considering notifying each other if they find any "unusual" disease symptoms in people or animals.

At todays' meeting, the Health, Welfare & Food Bureau proposed to establish a $450 million research fund to support research projects on the prevention, treatment and control of infectious diseases.