An American was confirmed dead from the new coronavirus on Saturday while a Japanese man also died with symptoms consistent with the disease, as the epidemic looked set to pass the death toll from the SARS outbreak in rapid time.
An American was confirmed dead from the new coronavirus on Saturday while a Japanese man also died with symptoms consistent with the disease, as the epidemic looked set to pass the death toll from the SARS outbreak in rapid time.
The 60-year old U.S. citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at Jinyintan Hospital in China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus outbreak, on Feb. 6, a U.S. embassy spokesperson in Beijing said.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” the spokesperson told Reuters. “Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
A Japanese man hospitalized with pneumonia in Wuhan also died after suffering flu-like symptoms consistent with the new coronavirus, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
The man in his 60s was suspected of having been infected with the coronavirus but due to difficulties in diagnosing the disease the cause of death was given as viral pneumonia, the ministry said citing Chinese medical authorities.
The total death toll in mainland China rose by 86 to 722 on Saturday, according to Chinese authorities, and is poised to pass the 774 deaths recorded globally during the 2002-2003 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another coronavirus that jumped from animals to humans in China. In Canada, 44 people were killed by SARS.
During the SARS outbreak between November 2002 and July 2003, the number of reported cases was 8,098, suggesting a far lower transmission rate than the latest coronavirus, but a higher mortality rate.
So far only two deaths have been reported outside mainland China, in Hong Kong and the Philippines — both of those victims were Chinese nationals.
“It is hard to say how let