Australia reported its first coronavirus fatality on Sunday, as infections soared beyond 3,500 in South Korea and deaths in China inched closer to 3,000, dpa reported. Western Australia's Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson confirmed the 78-year-old victim, who contracted the new coronavirus along with his wife onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, died at Perth's Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital early Sunday morning. He was diagnosed ten days earlier while in isolation at Howard Springs, near Darwin, after spending two weeks quarantined on the Diamond Princess of Yokohama, Japan. His wife, also in her 70s, was diagnosed with the virus a few days ago and remains in stable condition in hospital, Robertson said. Over 700 passengers and crew aboard the Diamond Princess were diagnosed with the coronavirus while the ship was quarantined offshore in late February, including six others who have died. In South Korea, health authorities reported 376 new coronavirus infections in the country, bringing the total confirmed cases to 3,526 including 17 deaths. The majority of the new cases, 333, were recorded in the city of Daegu, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. An outbreak in the city has been linked to the city's Shincheonji church. The outbreak is the largest outside China, where the novel coronavirus began spreading in December 2019. China reported 35 new deaths and 573 new confirmed cases of the Covid-19 disease caused by the coronavirus on Sunday, in figures released by the National Health Commission. The new additions bring the total death toll across China to 2,870, and total number of confirmed cases to almost 80,000.
