The deadly pneumonia-like disease has led governments across Asia to shave economic growth forecasts, as people stay away from shops and restaurants, travel plans are cancelled, and big events are scaled down or postponed.
The financial impact of SARS in Hong Kong could be as high as US$1.7bn, and US$2.2bn in China where it originated, new figures suggest.
The Chinese government is set to change the way it defines patients with SARS symptoms, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said and the effect is likely to be a big increase in the numbers of reported cases.
So far, 3,000 people around the world have been infected, and 170 have died. Calculations by the Far Eastern Economic Review, to be published this week, suggest that the economic toll could also reach US$2bn in South Korea, US$950m in Singapore and US$1.1bn in Japan.
The figures - which add up to US$10.6bn - were calculated using national governments' predictions of how SARS will hit GDP growth.
The WHO estimates that the global cost of SARS could reach US$30bn. Airlines have had to ground flights and run reduced capacity while the spread of the disease shows no signs of abating.
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, Asia's two largest carriers, said overseas flight bookings have dropped sharply as a result of the virus. Japan Airlines said overseas flight reservations had fallen 37 percent, while All Nippon's overseas bookings have dropped 34 percent.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways has cut 37 percent of its weekly capacity and warned it may have to ground its entire fleet if the panic does not subside.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has lifted restrictions on visitors from Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan making social visits with immediate effect, two weeks after imposing the ban.
"Because Canadians have taken stringent steps to control the spread of the virus, the Malaysian government has lifted the visa restriction," said Bahruddin Sulaiman, the Vice-President of Tourism Malaysia based in Vancouver, BC.
However, the restriction for travellers from China and Vietnam stays, he added further.
Tourists from the latter two countries would still be allowed to enter Malaysia with medical certification and visa.
