A 60-year-old
American has died of the new coronavirus, the first confirmed non-Chinese death of the illness, U.S. officials said, as millions of Chinese began returning home after a Lunar New Year break that was extended to try to contain the outbreak.
While the vast majority of cases have been in
China, the virus has spread to some two dozen countries abroad, including five
British nationals infected in a French mountain resort.
The American man died on Thursday in Wuhan, epicentre of the virus outbreak in the central Chinese province of Hubei, a U.S. embassy spokesman said in
Beijing on Saturday.