Prime Minister Jean Chretien had lunch in Toronto's Chinatown Thursday to send a message to Canadians nervous about contracting SARS from Asian communities.

"I thought it was the right thing to do,'' Chretien said. "There is no danger, all precautions have been taken. I wanted to give an example."

Chinese business communities across Canada have said the stigma surrounding SARS has led to fewer people frequenting their restaurants and shops. Chretien said he wants Canadians to visit the neighbourhoods and shop at the stores they wouldn't have thought twice about visiting one month ago.

"This is a great community in Toronto. And I saw on the news that very often, there is nobody in the restaurants and so on, and there is no reason for that," Chretien told reporters.

He made the visit on the same day that Ontario health officials announced that the number of suspected and probable cases of SARS in Ontario rose from 195 to 206. Of the cases, 95 are probable and 111 are suspected cases. The figures are cumulative and include those who have recovered and those who have died.

"The new cases that we're talking about today are, of course, a disappointment," Dr. James Young, Ontario's commissioner of public security, told reporters Thursday. He added though that 54 people have been discharged from hospital since the outbreak began.

Quarantine order violations

Young also took to task those residents who aren't following quarantine orders and thereby jeopardizing efforts to control the spread of the illness.

On Wednesday, almost 200 people had to go into isolation because a coworker came into the office when she should have been under quarantine. The worker later showed symptoms of SARS, which meant that all 197 of her coworkers had to be ordered into quarantine as well.

Two dozen people from a Toronto high school are also in quarantine because a student came to school to write an exam on her 10th day of isolation and then fell ill.

"The problem remains that people have to pay attention to isolation when they're put into isolation," Dr. Young told Canada AM Thursday. "(People) have to stay home when they are sick," he said. "If they will do those things, we can control this."

Young later told reporters that the isolation orders are not optional -- they're mandatory. He said provincial health officials have asked police to investigate whether charges should be laid against the female worker.

"The breach that resulted in all of the people being off work is going to be investigated by police to determine if in fact an offence was committed," Young told Thursday's news conference.

"This is not the direction we want to go. But we have clearly send the message that we cannot and will not tolerate people willingly breaching isolation orders. It puts everyone in the community at risk."

"We believe that we can succeed and we can stop this. But we also believe we need the full support of everyone in the community."

He added that people should remain on alert for signs of infection even after the isolation period has concluded.

"We're seeing symptoms at the odd time coming out towards the end of isolation, but the rule is, if you're not feeling well either during or following your isolation, stay home -- particularly before you have a fever," he told Canada AM.

Young dismissed the possibility that 10 days of quarantine were insufficient to prevent SARS exposure from spreading.

"We review it on a regular basis, but we're finding that the vast majority of people show symptoms much sooner," Young said.

So far, the illness has killed 10 people in a little over a month, all of them in the Toronto area. Young says it's isolation measures that have prevented an even worse spread of the disease.

"We're not seeing an exponential rise, we're not seeing a dramatic rise," he said. "We can interpret that as meaning the measures that we took last week and the week before are working and generally are keeping things under control."

Blood donation changes

Meanwhile, Health Canada is asking the operators of Canada's blood agencies to instill new SARS prevention methods. Dr. Paul Gully, senior director of Health Canada says that while there's no evidence SARS can be transmitted through blood, it wants Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec to take precautions.

Donations from people who have travelled to infected areas within the previous 10 days will not be accepted. Those areas are China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hanoi, Vietnam and Taiwan.

"We are simply saying that there is a theoretical risk, so why take the chance? It's a temporary deferral," explained Julia Hill, director general of the biologics and genetic therapies directorate at Health Canada.

A woman who developed SARS-like symptoms after flying home from travels in China was hospitalized in Listowel, Ont. this week. Doctors must figure out if she has SARS or just the flu while they race to contact the 300 or so others on the same flight.

Incoming passengers from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Beijing are receiving yellow SARS cards, warning of the symptoms and the need to seek treatment if they do get sick. By the middle of next week, people arriving on all other flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei will also receive the cards.

"After that, we intend to work toward including all flights from Asia,'' Gully said.

But there are still worries that some infected travellers could be getting through and not heeding the warnings until they are infectious. That's the worry.

"To contain an outbreak, it's people who have the mild disease who are the problem. They might themselves not realize they have the infection," says microbiologist Dr. Donald Low.

Gully said airlines at Toronto's Pearson airport are now asking departing passengers whether they've read health alert notices about SARS available at the terminal.