The condition of the three patients who were infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is fast improving, a doctor attending on them said on Tuesday.

Health officer of Pune Municipal Corporation Dr Anil Rawethkar said that the doctors were, however, keeping them and their close relatives in quarantine as a precautionary measure.

The patients would be shifted to Sassoon Hospital since the private hospital was not equipped to handle such sensitive cases, he said adding that the private hospital has also urged the government to transfer the patients to Sasoon.

The Union Health Ministry has already instructed the authorities in the city to trace the people who may have come in contact with the three D'Silvas and put them under observation.

Stanley D'Silva, his mother Vimla and sister Julie were the first confirmed cases of SARS in Maharashtra.

Stanley, a resident of Ambernath in Mumbai and working with a multinational company, was on a tour of South-East Asia when he is believed to have contracted the disease and from him it had allegedly spread to his mother and sister.

The Sasson Hospital has isolated a six-bed ward near the Skin and Venereal Diseases section for SARS patients following a high level meeting of the state health department along with local health officers at the hospital.

Julie got married under the supervision of doctors in a city church on Monday.

Meanwhile, the health of a suspected SARS patient in Nasik Civil Hospital, was stable and according to hospital sources his X-ray reports did not show patches of pneumonia.

M D Patil, Civil Surgeon of the hospital said though the patient's blood sample showed negative results in local laboratory, the samples have also been sent to Pune's National Institute of Virology and the reports are expected within 48 hours.

The patient, Girish Kishanchandra Gajavani, 23, had returned from the United States on April 18 with a dry cough and temperature.

He was admitted to Nasik Road's Jairambhai Bytco Hospital and shifted to Nasik Civil Hospital on Monday, where he is being kept under observation in the isolation ward.

Girish's temperature has reduced this morning and he looked fresh, Patil said.

The SARS Outbreak: The Complete Coverage