It comes amid a global shortage of ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic

A 90-year-old coroanvirus patient has died in Belgium after selflessly refusing a ventilator and instructing doctors to 'keep this for the younger' patients.

Suzanne Hoylaerts from Binkom, near Lubbeek, was hospitalised on March 20 when her condition rapidly deteriorated after contracting COVID-19.

It comes amid a global shortage of ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, a key piece of equipment in the battle against the respiratory disease.

Suzanne Hoylaerts (pictured) from Binkom, near Lubbeek, was hospitalised on March 20 when her condition rapidly deteriorated after contracting COVID-19

Hoylaerts sought medical attention after suffering from a lack of appetite and shortness of breath. She was admitted to hospital where she tested positive for the virus and was placed in isolation, meaning her daughter was unable to visit.

She reportedly told doctors at the hospital: 'I don't want to use artificial respiration. Save it for younger patients. I already had a good life.'

Hoylaerts passed away two days after she was hospitalised, on March 22.

Her distraught daughter Judith told Dutch newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws: 'I can't say goodbye to her, and I don't even have a chance to attend her funeral.'

According to Judith, the family were baffled as to how their mother could have contracted the virus as she had stayed at home and was complying carefully with lockdown measures.

Belgium has now recorded 705 deaths according to the latest official toll.

The country's toll on Tuesday represented a jump of nearly 200 fatalities from that given the previous day, which stood at 513.

Ventilators are crucial to helping severely ill coronavirus patients to recover. They are machines which pump oxygen in someone's lungs when they become unable to breathe on their own

The small EU country, with a population of 11.4 million, now has 12,775 cases of persons tested positive for COVID-19, of whom 4,920 have been hospitalised, including 1,021 in intensive care.

A 12-year-old girl Belgian girl confirmed infected with the coronavirus became the youngest person in Europe to die from the disease, officials said today.

Ventilators are crucial to helping severely ill coronavirus patients to recover. They are machines which pump oxygen in someone's lungs when they become unable to breathe on their own.