Taiwan has become the latest country to report fatality due to the Covid-19 infection. A Taiwanese national, who hadn't traveled abroad, died of the disease on Saturday [Feb. 15], the country's Health Minister, Chen Shih-chung, said on Sunday [Feb. 16].
Though over 99 per cent of Covid-19 fatalities have been reported in mainland China, where the disease originated, deaths have been reported in five other countries.
Taiwanese man dies after contracting Covid-19
The man in his 60s was a taxi driver, who also suffered from diabetes and hepatitis B and died on Saturday, Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.
"The man had not travelled abroad. Because Singapore has reported quite a few examples of coronavirus deaths with no travel history we decided to check if he was infected and found he tested positive for the virus," the minister said.
The man ferried passengers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. One of the relatives of the deceased man has also contracted the virus.
As on Sunday, Taiwan has reported 20 Covid-19 cases.
Covid-19: latest update
On Saturday, mainland China reported 2,009 new cases, along with 142 fatalities, bringing the death toll to 1,665 and confirmed cases to 68,500.
China's hard-hit Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, reported 1,843 of the newly confirmed cases. All but four fatalities on Saturday were reported in Hubei alone. Its capital Wuhan, where the disease is said to have originated in a local sea-food market, reported 1,548 of the newly-confirmed cases. The first case was reported in the city, on Dec. 31.
Till now, Hubei has reported a total of 56,249 cases along with 1,596 fatalities.
As many as 778 cases have been confirmed in over two dozen countries, with Japan reporting the highest number of 412 cases.
Till now, five fatalities due to Covid-19 have been reported outside mainland China. The Philippines reported the first on Feb. 2, followed by Hong Kong on Feb. 5. Japan became the third nation to report a death due to coronavirus on Feb. 13, followed by France on Feb. 14. Taiwan has become the latest nation to confirm a fatality on Feb. 16.
