Philippines reports first coronavirus death outside China

MANILA: The Philippines on Sunday reported the first death from coronavirus outside China, where authorities have tightened quarantine measures in a city that allow only one family member to venture out to buy supplies.

The Philippine Department of Health said a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan was admitted on January 25 after experiencing a fever, cough, and sore throat. He developed severe pneumonia and, in his last few days, “the patient was stable and showed signs of improvement, however, the condition of the patient deteriorated within his last 24 hours resulting in his demise”.

The man’s 38-year-old female companion, also from Wuhan, tested positive for the virus and remains in hospital isolation in Manila. President Rodrigo Duterte approved a temporary ban on all travellers, except Filipinos, from China and its autonomous regions.

The US, Japan, Singapore and Australia have imposed similar restrictions despite criticism from China and an assessment from the World Health Organisation that they were unnecessarily hurting trade and travel. The death toll in China climbed by 45 to 304 and the number of cases by 2,590 to 14,380, according to the National Health Commission.

This is well above the number of those infected in the 2002-03 outbreak of Sars, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which broke out in southern China and spread worldwide.

Meanwhile, six officials in the city of Huanggang, neighbouring the epicentre of Wuhan in Hubei province, have been fired over “poor performance” in handling the outbreak, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

A 1,000-bed hospital specially built to handle cases of the virus in Wuhan is expected to open on Monday (today), just 10 days after construction began. A second hospital is to open soon after.

With the outbreak showing little sign of abating, authorities in Hubei and elsewhere have extended the Lunar New Year holiday, due to end this week, well into February. With nearly 10 million people, Wenzhou has reported 241 confirmed cases of the virus, one of the highest levels outside Hubei.

Europe so far has 23 people infected with the virus: Germany with eight, all tied to the same car parts factory; France with six; Russia, Italy and the UK with two each, and Finland, Sweden and Spain each with one.