For the longest time, the Wuhan virus has been claiming lives daily, but it has always been people from China.
After all, the country’s hit with a whopping 14,380 infections so far—much higher than the second country with a total number of 20 cases (Japan).
With merely data from what China’s has reported, the fatality rate is about 2%.
And just for your reference, the SARS fatality rate is at about 10%.
Numbers would show that a death outside of China is rare but possible.
And the possible has happened.
First Wuhan Virus Death Outside of China Has Occurred & It is a 44-Year-Old Man From the Philippines
It all started with this tweet:
A 44-year-old male is confirmed as the second person with the 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV) in the Philippines. He passed away on 1 February 2020. pic.twitter.com/5a5tPWtvpc
— World Health Organization Philippines (@WHOPhilippines) February 2, 2020
According to Bloomberg, the guy isn’t a Filipino but a Wuhan resident.
He has died yesterday (1 February 2020), and details about his passing haven’t been revealed. However, according to the Philippine Department of Health, he was having severe pneumonia. It’s unknown if he had any other underlying health conditions.
Currently, there have been only two confirmed cases in the Philippines, with its first confirmed case announced just three days ago (30 January 2020).
Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, said, “This is the first reported death outside China…However, we need to take into mind that this is not a locally acquired case. This patient came from the epicentre of this outbreak.”
Victim Had Come to the Philippines with Another Wuhan Virus Confirmed Case
The 44-year-old had come to the Philippines with the first infected person back on 21 January 2020. The first infected person, a 38-year-old Chinese national, is now recovering in hospital.
They had arrived from Wuhan via Hong Kong, and the first confirmed case has been to the cities of Cebu and Dumaguete, both of which are popular tourist destinations in central Philippines.
The country has already temporarily “banned” tourists from China even before they registered their first confirmed case.
As of now, the total confirmed cases throughout the world is at 14,557 with 305 deaths (including this latest case).