The patient was 44, Chinese, and from Wuhan. He died in a Manila hospital of severe pneumonia, and on Sunday the Philippines reported it as the first death from the new coronavirus outside China.
The timeline is short. According to the Philippines’ Department of Health, the man flew from Wuhan to the Philippines via Hong Kong with a 38-year-old Chinese woman, who tested positive the week before. He was admitted to hospital in the capital, where the pneumonia developed. He is thought to have had other health conditions.
The World Health Organization said he appeared to have caught the virus before he arrived. That distinction was the point the WHO’s representative in the country, Rabindra Abeyasinghe, pressed in public. “This is the first reported death outside China,” he said. “However, we need to take into mind that this is not a locally acquired case. This patient came from the epicentre of this outbreak.”
Tracing contacts
The Department of Health was trying to find the other passengers on the man’s flight so they could be quarantined, Abeyasinghe said. Anyone the pair had met, hotel staff among them, was also on the list.
The death came to light just after the Philippines announced it would halt arrivals of foreign travelers from China at once. An earlier restriction had covered only people from Hubei. By Sunday the Philippines had widened it to all foreigners from China.
One death sat against more than 130 cases in around two dozen countries and regions outside mainland China.
The picture inside China
Figures from China’s National Health Commission put the national death toll at 304 by the end of Saturday, with 45 more deaths recorded in Hubei that day. Nationally there were 2,590 new confirmed infections, bringing the total to 14,380. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong estimated that more than 75,000 people may have been infected in Wuhan alone.
In Wuhan, a new hospital, Huoshenshan, was due to start taking patients on Monday. It has 1,000 beds and was built in eight days. The government also said it would put more than $170bn into the economy.
Borders closing, warnings against it
Singapore and the United States announced entry bans on foreigners who had recently been in China on Friday, and Australia followed on Saturday. Russia introduced visa restrictions, and South Korea said it would bar foreigners who had recently visited Hubei. Germany flew more than 100 citizens and family members out of Wuhan to Frankfurt, and about 250 Indonesians were being evacuated from Hubei.
Global health officials advised against the bans. “Travel restrictions can cause more harm than good by hindering info-sharing, medical supply chains and harming economies,” the head of the WHO said on Friday. The agency recommends screening at official border crossings and has warned that closing borders could push travelers into entering countries unofficially.
Sources
- Philippines reports first coronavirus death outside China – SABC News – Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.
- Philippines reports first coronavirus death outside China
- Coronavirus: First death outside China reported in Philippines
