Beijing ? Six months ago, the newly opened Chengdu Snacks was one of thousands of businesses forced to shut down as the streets of Beijing emptied and people stayed home in fear of SARS. The eatery reopened after a month, but business hasn’t been the same.

Though lunchtime is packed with people slurping spicy noodles and snagging dumplings from bamboo steamers, customers are slowly vanishing again amid fears that SARS — which first appeared in southern China last Nov. 16 — could resurface with the cold weather.

“People think SARS is on the way back, so they’re eating at home,” said Yi Binglong, 28, who moved to the capital from China’s southwest to open Chengdu Snacks. “In September and October, there would be customers through the afternoon. Now they disappear after lunch.”

Yi isn’t the only one on tenterhooks.

“It all feels a bit funny at the moment, just this waiting to see what will happen,” said Julie Hall, the SARS team leader at the World Health Organization’s Beijing office.

The Chinese government, which was harshly criticized both at home and abroad for withholding news of the SARS outbreak in its early months, has unleashed a stream of rhetoric aimed at persuading the masses that improved surveillance and reporting can avoid another epidemic.

This month, Vice Premier Wu Yi, who is also health minister, said China was “capable of preventing and controlling a resurgence of SARS.”

A Chinese scientist at the forefront of SARS research was more adamant. “With these active measures, I believe there will not be an outbreak of SARS this winter,” Professor Zhong Nanshan was quoted as saying on the Web site of People’s Daily, the Communist Party newspaper.

When the first known human case of severe acute respiratory syndrome occurred a year ago in southern China’s Guangdong province, no one noticed; SARS had never been seen before and had yet to be named. It was only later that researchers tracked down what is believed to be that first victim.

By early spring, cases were popping up around the globe, most notably in Hong Kong and Canada, causing mass panic. In all, 774 people died and more than 8,000 were sickened, according to WHO.

Mainland China accounted for more than half the cases and deaths but kept its figures secret until April, when the government — under pressure from the international community — vowed to be more open and aggressive.

WHO’s Hall said mobilizing against a disease that may or may not return had been an unusual challenge.

“People feel like they’ve learned from the last time,” she said. “But everyone just feels a tiny bit jittery, a tiny bit jumpy.”