Tokyo: Japan has confirmed its first death from the novel coronavirus, the country’s health minister Katsunobu Kato said Thursday evening local time.
The Japanese woman, in her 80s, did not come from the Diamond Princess cruise ship which is in quarantine in Yokohama port, near Tokyo, CNN reported.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China mainland so far stands at 1,367 deaths, a jump of 254 from the previous day, according to the country’s National Health Commission.
On Saturday, a Japanese who was suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus died in the Chinese city of Wuhan, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Saturday in the first report on a Japanese fatality from the deadly virus, Japan Times reported.
In Japan, meanwhile, three more people on the cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the health ministry said Saturday, bringing the total number of infected people from the vessel to 64.
The vessel, carrying around 3,700 passengers and crew from more than 50 countries and regions, was put under quarantine at a pier in Yokohama after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong was found to be infected with the virus.
In mainland China, the death toll from the outbreak has risen to 722, with more than 34,500 people infected, the Chinese health authorities said on Saturday. The hardest-hit province of Hubei said it saw 2,841 more cases and 81 more deaths.
Wuhan, the province’s capital and the centre of the outbreak, has so far reported 13,603 infections, with 545 deaths, the authorities said.