A man in his 80s died in a Sydney hospital after testing positive to COVID-19, becoming the third coronavirus-related casualty in Australia, state health authorities said on Sunday.
The total number of coronavirus cases now stands at 74 in the country, with state and federal health authorities fretting over the risk of more widespread community transmission.
The outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people worldwide, spreading across more than 90 nations outside China, where it originated.
New South Wales Health said in a statement, it was “continuing to find and respond to cases as they are diagnosed to slow any spread of COVID-19 in the community.”
Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt said on Sunday the government has secured an additional 54 million face masks to help protect medical workers.
The masks are scheduled to arrive in Australia between now and the end of April, Hunt added.
On Saturday, the government released an extra 260,000 surgical masks from federal stockpile to primary health networks.
A patient diagnosed with coronavirus died in Argentina on Saturday, the Health Ministry said in a statement, marking the first death related to the virus in Latin America.
Fellow South American countries Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and Peru announced their first confirmed cases of coronavirus in recent days, and a number of cases have been confirmed in neighbouring Brazil
Read more via Reuters
