Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, second left, speaks at a meeting against a new coronavirus, at his official residence in Tokyo
Japan's health ministry said a woman infected with COVID-19 has died, becoming the country's first confirmed fatality. Health Minister Katsunobu Kato announced on Thursday that the victim was a woman in her 80s who had been treated at a hospital near Tokyo since early February after developing symptoms. Her infection was confirmed after her death.
Japan has confirmed 247 cases of the virus, including 218 from a cruise ship quarantined at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, amid growing fears of the spreading virus.
Japan announced its first death from the new virus, hours after confirming 44 more cases on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo as fears of the spreading disease mount in the country.
The woman, a resident of Kanagawa prefecture, near Tokyo, had no record of travelling to Wuhan or contacts with Chinese visitors from the region, and health officials are investigating how she contracted the virus, including a person-to-person infection.
Kato also confirmed two other cases of the virus, a Tokyo taxi driver in his 70s and a doctor in his 50s who works at a hospital in western Japan.
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