BAKU, March 12. /TASS/. The first death of a coronavirus patient has been reported in Azerbaijan, the coronavirus task force set up by the country’s government said on Thursday.
"A female Azerbaijani national born in 1969 applied to the hospital over chronic diseases. Along with being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and renal failure, she also tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Medics tried hard to save her life, but failed," the report said.
Her family and people who had come into contact with her were placed in quarantine.
The task force has urged the nationals to avoid places of mass gatherings, as well as to observe sanitation and hygiene rules.
As of now, Azerbaijan has reported 15 coronavirus cases. Fourteen infected people, including a Russian national, had returned from Iran, and one more - from Italy. According to the task force, three infected patients recovered and have been discharged from hospital. The others are in hospitals under the control of medics.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December 2019. Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported from more than 100 countries and territories, including Russia. Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran.
The World Health Organization says that the novel coronavirus cases across the globe have exceeded 118,000, with about 4,300 deaths. The WHO has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.