Asitabha Purokayastha, the 42-year-old textile engineer who had been diagnosed as suffering from severe acute respiratory syndrome, was allowed to go home on Monday.

Prabhakar Chatterjee, director of West Bengal's health services, told a press conference in Kolkata that Purokayastha would be kept under observation at home for a week.

"During this period he won't be allowed to go out," Chatterjee said.

The patient, who contracted SARS while in China, has been given the discharge certificate by the AMRI Apollo hospital.

Chatterjee said Purokayastha was allowed to go home as his white blood cell count, cough and platelets were normal. "His symtomological and serological results were not matching and he is being released in keeping with WHO directives," he said.

Chatterjee said a watch would be kept on Purokayastha's relatives, though the patient did not appear infectious anymore. The ten-day incubation period is over and his condition is stable, he said.

"He doesn't have fever or headache and is also not showing any other symptom [of SARS] now," Chatterjee said.

Meanwhile, another SARS suspect, who arrived here from Hong Kong via Dhaka on Sunday morning, is now lodged at the Infectious Diseases hospital.