SARS virus attacks on Moby and Santana gigs

NEW YORK (Moby & Santana Official Websites) - Moby and Carlos Santana are the latest acts to cancel gigs in Hong Kong over fears of a killer virus. The outbreak of the pneumonia-type illness - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) - has already led the Rolling Stones to postpone concerts in Asia.

Santana has decided to switch his 11 April concert to Osaka, Japan, where he will play to a 1,500-strong audience.

Moby has called off dates in Hong Kong and Singapore, where SARS has thought to have been detected in at least 74 people.

SARS has struck a suspected 425 people in Hong Kong, with 12 deaths reported. Moby said he would be heeding the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which has warned against non-essential travel to the countries.
In a statement on his website he apologised to fans with tickets for the shows and said he would be rescheduling the dates when the SARS scare had died down.
Hong Kong authorities have reported a rise in the number of SARS cases. And more than 700 people have already been quarantined in Singapore on suspicion that they may have come into contact with the disease, with two deaths reported.

Public gatherings

The SARS virus has infected more than 1,550 people and killed at least 54 worldwide since first surfacing in southern China in November.

The Rolling Stones cancelled concerts in China and Hong Kong because of the outbreak, although they did play in Singapore.

The Stones said they had taken into account the concerns expressed by local Chinese government officials, communities and individuals over large public gatherings.

Veteran American singer Andy Williams, 76, has also postponed a concert in Hong Kong on 12 April until 6 June because he did not want his band risking their health.