KYODO NEWS - Feb 23, 2020 - 20:40 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

A Japanese man in his 80s who was on the cruise ship Diamond Princess has died from pneumonia, the health ministry said Sunday, bringing the number of deaths among people who boarded the coronavirus-hit vessel to three.

However, the ministry refrained from clarifying whether the man tested positive for the virus or whether he was a passenger or a crew member, citing a lack of consent from his family. The man had pre-existing conditions, the ministry said.

In Japan, two Japanese passengers -- an 87-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman -- died from COVID-19, the official name of the pneumonia caused by the new virus, on Thursday.

Their deaths followed the first COVID-19 death in the country, of a woman in her 80s, a week earlier. She was unrelated to the cruise ship.

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