Australia today has reported its first death due to the coronavirus. A 78-year-old man from Perth, who was evacuated from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise liner in Japan, died in a hospital on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the Western Australian state health department told AFP that his 79-year-old wife was also infected with the disease during the cruise and remains in a Perth hospital. The woman remains in stable condition in hospital.
The Perth couple were among the 160 Australians evacuated from the Diamond Princess last month. They were tested positive for the coronavirus during their flight home and were immediately transferred to isolation units in the Perth hospital on February 21.
Meanwhile, the New South Wales health department on Sunday confirmed the fifth coronavirus case in the state, taking the total number of infections in Australia to 26.
China's coronavirus death toll climbed to 2,870 with 35 new deaths, while the confirmed cases increased to 79,824 even as the infections outside the worst-hit Hubei province dropped with only three positive cases reported in a single day, continuing the trend of slowdown in the rest of the country.
Over 1,300 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed outside China in the past 24 hours taking the number of those infected with the virus outside the Asian nation to 6009, announced the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday. Of the 6009 cases outside China, 1318 are new cases of COVID-19, the WHO situation report (with data reported by 10 am on February 29) said.
(Inputs from Agencies)
