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Coronavirus on track to kill more people than Sars, experts say
- The new contagion may be far less deadly than severe acute respiratory syndrome but it has already infected more than four times as many people
- As of Friday, the death toll from the novel coronavirus stood at 724, just 89 short of the Sars total from 2002-03
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As the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 724 on Friday, the rate at which fatalities are being reported suggests it may soon surpass the 813 attributed to the Sars outbreak of 2002-03, experts say.
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All but two of the deaths have been in mainland China, with Hubei province and its capital city Wuhan being the worst affected. More than 34,500 people have been infected by the virus in China, with about 330 confirmed cases elsewhere around the world, according to official figures.
On Saturday, the US embassy reported the death of an American citizen in Wuhan, in what appears to be the first confirmed case of a non-Chinese citizen succumbing to the infection.
“We can confirm that a 60-year-old US citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at Jinyintang Hospital in Wuhan, China, on February 6,” an embassy spokesman said, naming one of the designated hospitals for treating coronavirus patients.
A report by The New York Times, which cited two people familiar with the matter, said that the person who died was a woman, and that she had pre-existing health conditions.
Earlier this month, Tokyo reported that a Japanese man in his 60s had died in hospital in Wuhan. While it was suspected he had been infected with the coronavirus, the Japanese foreign ministry said it was difficult to confirm such a diagnosis.
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