Hong Kong, if we exclude China, is now the first country to have more than one COVID-19 death.
Earlier this month, on 4 February 2020, Hong Kong reports its first COVID-19 death: a 39-year-old man who had travelled to Wuhan In January 2020.
Back then, it was reported that the man had diabetes; he had been stable until his condition suddenly deteriorated.
Today, a 70-year-old man died from COVID-19. It’s understood that he, too, had underlying illnesses.
Of all the deaths outside of China, all of them have underlying illnesses.
Deaths Outside of China
So far, this is the sixth death outside of China, out of the 1,014 confirmed cases.
The first death from COVID-19 outside of China came from the Philippines on 2 February 2020, whereby a 44-year-old man from Wuhan died in the country. He allegedly had an undisclosed underlying health condition.
The second death is from Hong Kong.
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The third death happened in Japan to a woman in her 80s. However, that case is a tad complicated; she was only diagnosed with COVID-19 after her death, so the Japan health minister has said that the “relationship between the new coronavirus and the death of the person is still unclear.”
On 15 February 2020, the first COVID-19-linked death outside of Asia occurred: the patient is an 80-year-old Chinese tourist in France.
The next day, on 16 February 2020, a taxi driver in his 60s from Taiwan died. He allegedly had diabetes and Hepatitis B, and died due to pneumonia and sepsis.
A spokesperson from Princess Margaret Hospital confirmed Hong Kong’s second death today. He was one of the 62 confirmed cases in the city.
With this latest Hong Kong death, the fatality rate outside of China, if all detected numbers are to be trusted, is at 0.59%. Lest you’re not aware, SARS’ fatality rate is at 9.6% while H1N1 fatality rate is at 0.02%.
However, do note that H1N1 has become a “regular flu” so the number of confirmed cases would now be much higher, which will drastically reduce the fatality rate.
In other words, for the numbers for COVID-19, take it with a pinch of salt first until more numbers are confirmed.
