Coronavirus claims first death outside China

The death toll in China rose to at least 304.

A 44-year-old man in the Philippines has died of the coronavirus, health officials said on Sunday. He is the first known death outside China. 

The man, a resident of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus, died on Saturday after developing what officials called "severe pneumonia."

The World Health Organization’s office in the Philippines said in a statement: "This is the first known death of someone with 2019-nCoV [coronavirus] outside of China."

Philippines health officials said the man had arrived in the country on 21 January with a 38-year-old woman who remains under observation.

Hours before the death was announced, the Philippines said it was temporarily banning non-Filipino travelers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

The death toll in China rose to at least 304.

More than 2,000 new cases were also recorded in the country in the past 24 hours, raising the worldwide total to nearly 14,380, according to Chinese and World Health Organization data. The vast majority of the cases are inside China; about 100 cases have been confirmed in at least 23 other countries.