(Singapore, Feb 8, 2020) The number of deaths from China’s new coronavirus epidemic has reached 722, overtaking the nearly 650 deaths in Mainland China and Hong Kong during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
On Friday, the fatalities in China from the coronavirus reached a single-day high of 86.
A US citizen diagnosed with the coronavirus has died in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak, marking the first known American death from the disease.
According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, a Japanese man in his 60s who was suspected of contracting the coronavirus also died in Wuhan. But it didn’t say when he died.
Across mainland China, there were 3,399 new confirmed infections on Friday, bringing the total accumulated number so far to 34,546, according to the Chinese Authorities.
Singapore, with its 33 confirmed cases, is now home to the second-largest number of confirmed cases outside the Chinese mainland.
Off the coast of Japan, another 41 people on a cruise ship have tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases on board to 61. Some 3,700 people are on board the Diamond Princess, which is quarantined in Yokohama for at least two weeks.
