Japanese man hospitalised with pneumonia in Wuhan dies, coronavirus suspected

He is potentially the first Japanese to have died of the disease

TOKYO: A Japanese man hospitalised with pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak, has died, Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The man in his sixties 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 foreign ministry said citing Chinese medical authorities.

The man is potentially the first Japanese to have died of the disease, as a foreign ministry official said the government does not know of any Japanese that have died from the coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 700 people in mainland China and infected over 34,000.

The death in Wuhan came as the number of passengers infected with the virus from a cruise liner quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama jumped to 64 on Saturday.

The virus has spread around the world, with 320 cases now in 27 countries and regions outside mainland China, a Reuters tally of official statements showed.