Feb 09 (NHK) - Japan's foreign ministry says a Japanese man in his 60s who was suspected of having the new coronavirus died of pneumonia on Saturday in the Chinese city Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak.
Ministry officials say the man, who was living in the city with his Chinese wife, developed a fever on about January 16. He was admitted to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Preliminary tests returned a positive result for the coronavirus on January 28, but the result had not been confirmed at the time of the man's death.
The hospital that treated him said his cause of death was "viral pneumonia," but officials were not sure if it had been caused by the new coronavirus.
The man is the first Japanese national suspected of having the virus to die.
The Japanese government says it will contact his family through the embassy in China to offer support.