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Coronavirus Kills First Patient Outside China

On Saturday, the Philippines confirmed that one of the men who tested positive for the novel coronavirus has died. This 44-year-old man was the second confirmed coronavirus case in the Philippines. According to the officials of the Department of Health in the Philippines, he was the companion of a 38-year-old woman who was the first confirmed case. They were among the 24 other patients who were tested for the virus but only they turned out to be positive.

Both of them were from Wuhan in China which is the epicentre of this outbreak. On Sunday, Chinese officials said that the virus has caused deaths of 304 people and infected around 14,380. Dr Rabi Abeyasinghe who is a World Health Organization representative in the Philippines said on twitter that this is first reported death outside China but however it is necessary to know that this person came from Wuhan China.

On January 25th the man was admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila after he showed symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat. According to the officials, this man had severe pneumonia because of viral and bacterial infections before stabilizing in his last few days. Yet, his condition kept deteriorating drastically in the last 24 hours leading to his death.

Francisco T. Duque III who is the Health Secretary said in his statement that we would like to let people know that this was an imported case and there is no evidence of local transmission as of now. They are currently working with the Chinese Embassy to ensure that his remains are managed respectfully according to national and international standards to contain the disease.

Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that mostly infect animals. But some can evolve and spread to human beings as well. Symptoms in humans include fever, coughing and shortness of breath which can extend to pneumonia.

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