Coronavirus Live Updates: An American in Wuhan Dies of the Virus
The death appeared to be the first of a U.S. citizen from the disease and prompted further questions about Beijing’s handling of the outbreak.
Medical workers on Friday at a convention center in Wuhan, China, that has been turned into a makeshift hospital. via Reuters
An American in Wuhan has died from the coronavirus.
A United States citizen has died from the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in what appeared to be
the first death of an American from the outbreak.
Few details about the American, who died on Thursday, were immediately available. The person was around 60 years old and died at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, according to the United States Embassy in Beijing. Two people familiar with the matter said the person was a woman and had underlying health conditions.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” said a spokesman for the embassy. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we have no further comment.”
Japan said on Saturday that one of its citizens had died in a Wuhan hospital, from what was suspected to be a case of the coronavirus. But the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that based on information it had received from the Chinese authorities, it could not confirm whether the man, who was in his 60s, had been infected. The ministry said the cause of death was viral pneumonia.
Another Japanese citizen has also been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the authorities said on Saturday. A man in his 20s, among 198 people who returned from Wuhan by government-sponsored charter plane to Tokyo on Friday, was said to have tested positive for the virus and been hospitalized.
The Health Ministry said that the man had exhibited no symptoms when he boarded the flight in Wuhan, but was running a fever by the time he landed and had developed a mild case of pneumonia.
Lawyer who reported on conditions in Wuhan has gone missing, friends say.
A lawyer who had provided a rare glimpse into
the dire conditions in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has gone missing, his friends say, expressing fear for his safety.
The lawyer, Chen Qiushi, who is based in Beijing, had been reporting from Wuhan since the city went into lockdown last month as the authorities scrambled to contain the virus.
In a series of video blogs and footage posted on Twitter and sometimes on YouTube, which are both blocked in mainland China, Mr. Chen documented the plight of patients and the shortage of hospital supplies, and he warned of cross-infection in Wuhan’s mass quarantine sites.
A friend who is currently managing Mr. Chen’s Twitter account said contact had been lost with him on Thursday.
The friend, who requested anonymity to protect the account’s security, said Mr. Chen had recognized the risks that came with his journalistic work from the beginning and had shared his passwords with friends as a precaution, in case he would one day be detained.
Xu Xiaodong,
a prominent mixed martial arts practitioner in China, also said on Friday that he had lost contact with Mr. Chen, his friend. In a video message on Friday, Mr. Xu said that Mr. Chen’s parents had been told that their son had been quarantined because he had visited several hospitals and risked contracting the virus.
“I’m announcing this because I’m scared! Because the next one could be me,”
Mr. Xu tweeted on Friday.
Mr. Chen made headlines last summer when he visited Hong Kong to report on the city’s antigovernment demonstrations and challenged portrayals by Chinese state news media that the protesters were rioters.
The illness gets a name, temporarily.
The Chinese government has announced a temporary name for the illness caused by the coronavirus, ordering the local authorities and state news media to adopt it. In English, it will be called N.C.P., for novel coronavirus pneumonia, the national health commission said on Saturday.
The Coronavirus Outbreak
A final, official name will eventually be chosen by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The organization has submitted a name to a scientific journal for publication and hopes to reveal it within days,
the BBC reported.
