39-year-old man being treated for Coronavirus has died on Tuesday morning, according to the AFP.
The man was a resident of Hong Kong, who had travelled last month to Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak, returning home on January 23 via a high-speed rail link.
Since emerging from Wuhan late last year, the Coronavirus has infected 20,000 people across China and spread to more than 20 countries.
But so far only the Philippines and Hong Kong have reported a fatality outside of the Chinese mainland.
Most of the deaths in China have been in Wuhan and the rest of surrounding Hubei province, much of which has been under lockdown for almost two weeks.
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said further details about the death would be released later Tuesday.
Multiple local media outlets, citing medical sources, said the man had underlying health issues that had complicated his treatment.
His death came a day after Hong Kong’s leader announced the closure of all but two land border crossings to the Chinese mainland in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.
Currently, 15 people have tested positive for the virus in Hong Kong, many of them are people, who arrived in the semi-autonomous city from the mainland.
