While no official case of SARS has been reported in Weyburn yet, the concern around this atypical pneumonia has affected some Weyburn residents in their travels.

One well-known city resident, Isabelle Butters, recently returned from an extensive cruise ship tour, which she joined at the port of Hong Kong, one of the world's "hot spots" for the illness.

While she flew to Hong Kong to board the cruise ship on March 26, she saw very limited effects of the illness at that time.

"We went straight from the airport to the ship. I bet I didn't see a dozen people wearing masks, but that was a month ago. That month has made a lot of difference. There's been quite a change since I was there," said Butters.

Part of her tour did also take her into China, including seeing the Great Wall, and she visited open markets and other places. China has since tightened up restrictions on residents in public places as the death toll there continues to rise.

Her tour also took her to South Korea, Japan, Hawaii and ended in Los Angeles, from where she flew in to Winnipeg.

"We had no problems coming back into Canada, and I really thought we might," she said, adding they heard all the reports about the illness, along with coverage of the Iraq war, during her time on the ship.

Another Weyburn resident, the Review's associate publisher Ernie Neufeld, is in the middle of Canada's SARS hot spot, Toronto, and will be back in Weyburn later this week. The World Health Organization listed Toronto as a place to avoid this past week, but on Monday they finally agreed to review their travel advisory, after pressure from Canadian health and government officials.

In an e-mail on Tuesday, he said he and his wife Anne have tried to carry on as normal a life as possible, but some effects have been seen.

"At church, which still employs the old-fashioned communion of shared cups (Anglican), they have cut out the wine altogether. At a recent Blue Jays baseball game, news reports had it that attendance had been the lowest they had ever seen at the Skydome. Chinese restaurants are said to be over half empty," he said.

Neufeld said he was happy to hear that the Weyburn Comp choir and bands were coming, but was disappointed to hear this was later reversed. The reversal came the same day as WHO issued their travel advisory; the Comp has since rescheduled the band trip to Edmonton.

"Too bad! It is still a good city as cities go. And some 150 cases of real or suspected cases of SARS, all emanating from the same source, is not that bad," he said, adding of the death toll, which reached 21 as of late Monday, more people have died of influenza in the same period.

"I still go to Rotary meetings and have not worried about things. I am aware, however, of being much more conscious than ever before of nearby people coughing or sneezing and not covering their mouths. One cannot help becoming a bit defensive," he said.