Four volunteers were injected with a SARS vaccine at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing on Saturday.
The epidemic had forced the government to sack the health minister as well as the mayor of Beijing.
WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, however, warned that the world was not yet SARS-free.
'As the infection source has not yet been cut off, numbers of confirmed and suspected SARS cases remain high,' Wang Qishan said.
The health ministry took the decision as news cases of SARS were not being reported from neighbouring countries.
The government's decision comes in the wake of a WHO directive stating that a person infected with the corona virus will not infect others unless he starts manifesting the SARS symptoms.
The defence minister said he was also checked for SARS at Shanghai before leaving for India.
SARS epidemic erupted in China early this year, and rapidly spread throughout Asia and Northern America.
The person was suffering from hypertension and showed high blood pressure and breathlessness when he arrived from Bangkok on Saturday night.
The 12 new cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is the lowest since April 20 when China started issuing\n\nnationwide SARS-related statistics.
New Zealand's team are monitoring the deadly pneumonia outbreak in Asia before deciding whether to tour Sri Lanka later this month, said team captain Stephen Fleming.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called on 'the whole nation' to 'work closely together to win the fierce battle' against SARS.
Taiwan's Department of Health said the number of probable SARS cases rose by 39 to 383 and a dozen more had died, bringing the toll to 52.
More suspected SARS patients have been detained in several places around the country.
Vijay Swaminathan, hailing from Chennai, returned to the city after a brief visit to Singapore and Japan, where SARS has affected several people.
They had allowed the first SARS patient to leave the hospital even before reports of tests were available.
But 'the threat of SARS import through international travel is great', the health ministry said in a statement.
China's health ministry has said anyone found with fever at its borders would be quarantined.
Stanley D'silva, his mother Vimla and sister Julie have been hospitalised in Pune and are on their way to recovery, state Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar said.
A United Nation's body on Thursday pegged down India's economic growth prospects to 5.1 per cent in 2003 from an earlier projection of 6.0 per cent, mainly due to the impact of Iraq war, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
After the 10 seamen, who were taken to Hong Kong's Princess Margaret hospital, underwent screening including chest X-rays and blood tests, doctors said there was nothing to worry.
Although 20 persons have tested positive for the SARS virus, none of them have fallen in the WHO definition of the killer disease, she said.
