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Death toll from China’s coronavirus outbreaks reaches 722

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Health officials in China have revealed that no fewer than 722 infected people have lost their lives to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus while the total number of infections across the country has now reached at least 34,546.

The number of deaths from China’s coronavirus outbreak revealed on Saturday, has now surpassed the death toll from the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak on the mainland and Hong Kong almost two decades ago.

In a related development, a US citizen has died from the new coronavirus at the epicentre of the epidemic in China, the US embassy said Saturday, in what appears to be the first confirmed foreign death from the outbreak.

“We can confirm that a 60-year-old US citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at a hospital in Wuhan, China, on February 6,” an embassy spokesman said.

READ ALSO: Ghana quarantines 2 suspected carriers of coronavirus

The development comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday the Coronavirus has killed a Chinese doctor, Dr. Li Wenliang.

WHO, in a tweet posted on its official Twitter page expressed sadness at the doctor’s death.

It said: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on #2019nCoV.”

Wenliang died on Thursday at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) room.

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