Reports have suggested onlookers were put off attempting CPR over fears of coronavirus (Pictures: Channel 7)

A Chinese man who suffered a suspected fatal heart attack in Sydney was reportedly left to die on the pavement because onlookers were too scared to give CPR in case he had coronavirus.

The 60-year-old man collapsed outside the Masuya Suisan restaurant in the Chinatown district on Tuesday night, New South Wales Police said.

Medics battled to revive him but he died at the scene at around 8.30pm, Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.

According to news.com.au, NSW Police would not comment on reports in the Telegraph that bystanders refused to attempt resuscitation over fears about the virus.


The man collapsed outside a restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown district (Picture: Channel 7)

Despite emergency services’ best efforts he was pronounced dead at the scene (Picture: Channel 7)

More than 6,000 people have been infected by the deadly virus and 170 killed since it spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where 11 million remain on lockdown.



Australia has confirmed seven cases relating to people who had recently returned there from Wuhan – four in New South Wales, two in Victoria and one on Queensland.

All are stable and being treated in hospital.

Hundreds more Australian citizens evacuated from Hubei province face the prospect of being sent to a remote island used to banish asylum seekers and convicts.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said notorious Christmas Island struck the right balance between supporting Australians stranded in China and protecting the wider population from the potentially deadly disease.

He told reporters in Canberra: ‘The reality is people need to be accommodated somewhere for up to 14 days.

‘I can’t clear out a hospital in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane. I don’t have a facility otherwise that we can quickly accommodate for what might be many hundreds of people and Christmas Island is purpose-built for exactly this scenario.’

The Australian Medical Association said people would be better quarantined on the Australian mainland.

What is the coronavirus and where did it start? Coronaviruses are a family of diseases which include the common cold and the virus which caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people around the world. The virus causing concern now is a new strain which has made the jump from animals to people, named Covid-19. It causes fever and a cough and can make it hard for people to breathe, causing viral pneumonia in severe cases. Over 2,700 people worldwide have now died after contracting the illness. How does it affect the lungs? What are the symptoms of the virus? The virus is more likely to progress into a severe illness or prove fatal among older patients or those with weakened immune systems. As it is a viral illness, antibiotics will not help and there is no known cure or vaccine. A scan shows the lungs of a patient with coronavirus (Picture: Reuters) To avoid the illness, take usual hygiene precautions, such as using a tissue to cover coughs and sneezes, and making sure to wash your hands. Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth after touching things like poles on public transport and avoid close contact with people suffering an acute respiratory infection. You should also avoid unprotected contact with wild or farm animals. So far, 13 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK. Hundreds have been tested for it here, with most of the tests coming back negative. How many people in the UK have it? Is Coronavirus in the UK? Where is Wuhan in China, where coronavirus started? The virus originated in the city of Wuhan in China, where it is believed to have made the jump from animals to people at a seafood market. Wuhan is the capital of China’s Hubei province, a landlocked province in central China. It is built along the Yangtze river, and is around 500 miles west of Shanghai and 690 miles north of Hong Kong. It is the largest and most populous city in central China, although estimates over its population vary.