HAGUE, March 6. /TASS/. A senior man has become the first victim of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the Netherlands, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment reported Friday.

According to the report, the victim is a 86-year old man, who died in a Rotterdam hospital, where he received urinary system treatment. After he complained about breathing problems, he was tested for coronavirus with positive results.

By Friday afternoon, 128 coronavirus cases were registered in the Netherlands. The majority of the infected either recently visited northern Italy themselves or contacted people who did.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19.

Over 80% of all coronavirus cases have been reported in China. According to recent data, 80,700 people have been infected with the virus in China. In total, 53,800 people in China have recovered from the disease (over 60% of those infected); while about 3,000 people succumbed to the disease (about 3.7% of all infected persons).

Outside of China, major outbreaks of coronavirus have been documented in South Korea (6,593 people infected, over 100 patients recovered, 42 deaths); Iran (4,747 people infected, over 500 patients recovered, 124 deaths); Italy (3,858 people infected, 414 recovered patients, 148 deaths); Japan (1,074 people infected, 248 recovered patients, 12 deaths).

Over 100 cases of coronavirus have been reported in eight more states: Germany, France, Spain, the USA, the UK, Singapore, Belgium and Sweden.