Beijing ? Authorities closed two hospitals and put patients and 2,000 workers under observation for the SARS virus, while across the city Thursday, anxious residents emptied grocery stores of rice, oil and frozen food in a bout of panic-buying.

The closures were the latest action this week — along with the closing of public schools and plans for a quarantine — to try to contain severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed four more people, raising Beijing’s death toll to 39.

Throughout China, 110 people have died from the disease, the Health Ministry said.

Beijing’s Ditan Hospital was sealed off today, with no visitors allowed in, said an official in the hospital’s administrative office who declined to give her name. Medical workers were allowed to leave the building.

Also closed on Thursday was the People’s Hospital of Peking University. The hospital was being disinfected, and a university official said an unknown number of patients and 2,262 employees were moved for observation to another hospital, one of six designated to handle SARS.

However, a sign outside the building, which was cordoned off with police tape, said everything inside — from patients to equipment — was being kept there to stem the spread of the virus.

The spread of SARS has touched on virtually every aspect of society in China, from tourism to business — even sports, as the nation’s soccer association postponed the start of the professional season.

The effects of the disease were also being felt — though less profoundly — in Canada. Toronto and Beijing were added Wednesday to a list of places travelers should avoid.

Toronto has far fewer cases than China and only 16 deaths, but the World Health Organization said it had exported SARS cases to other countries. Canadian officials, fearing a continued decline in business, asked WHO to reconsider, but noted that was unlikely.

In Beijing, airport and train station were packed this week with people trying to flee.

A thermal video system monitors the body temperature of passengers arriving at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, China. The system is part of an effort to detect the flulike SARS and prevent its spread.