A buyer holds boxes of 3M Co. 8247 R95 particulate respirators at a pharmacy in the Central district of Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.
Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty Effigies
Hong Kong on Tuesday announced its first death from a new coronavirus believed to be from the the city of Wuhan in cardinal China.
A 39-year-old man infected with the virus died Tuesday morning at the Princess Margaret Hospital, a spokesperson for the asylum said in a statement to CNBC.
Local media outlets reported that the man traveled to Wuhan, China. CNBC has not supported those reports.
This would be the second known death outside of mainland China. On Sunday, officials in the Philippines ordered a man from Wuhan died in a hospital in Manila.
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, borders Guangdong sphere in south China.
The city’s leader Carrie Lam had already declared a virus emergency in the city of 7.3 million on Jan. 25. Embattled Lam has been impaired pressure to close all of the the city’s borders with mainland China.
On Monday, Lam announced that the city would discontinue temporarily 10 out of a possible 13 border crossings with mainland China in an effort to curb the fast-spreading coronavirus.
Thousands of medical women in Hong Kong have gone on strike starting Monday to compel the city’s government to accede to a demand for a flawless shutdown of its borders with mainland China to stem the spread of the virus.
Lam has previously said a complete border shutdown with mainland China would be “discriminatory.”
The monetary center has been already been hit by months-long anti-establishment protests that have hurt its economy.
Hong Kong reported its authentic GDP contracted by 1.2% in 2019 — the city’s first annual decline since 2009.