Home Emergency Medicine Man Residing in China First U.S. Citizen to Die From Coronavirus

Man Residing in China First U.S. Citizen to Die From Coronavirus

Not clear why man was not able to leave Wuhan on evacuation flights, but may have been too ill to fly

MONDAY, Feb. 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A 60-year-old man living in Wuhan, China, has become the first American citizen to die from the new coronavirus that first surfaced in the Chinese city.

The man, whose name has not been disclosed, died Thursday at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, the U.S. Embassy in China said Saturday. According to The Washington Post, the embassy issued a statement with “our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss. Out of the respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.” It is not clear why the man was not able to leave Wuhan on one of a number of U.S. State Department evacuation flights that brought hundreds of Americans to the United States over the past week, but he may have already been too ill to fly.

In Tokyo, Japan’s Foreign Ministry also announced the death from coronavirus of the first Japanese citizen, a man in his 60s living in Wuhan, the Post reported. Only two people living outside of China have so far died of coronavirus — a Wuhan man in the Philippines and a man in Hong Kong.

Also on Saturday, the death toll in China took its biggest one-day jump ever, with 86 new deaths recorded over the past 24 hours, Chinese officials said. That puts the total number of deaths from the outbreak at 723.

The Washington Post Article
More Information: CDC

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.