Kathmandu, March 4

Spain yesterday reported the first death on its soil from coronavirus and the victim had travelled to Nepal.

Health officials in Valencia said the virus was to blame for the death of the man on February 13 in a city hospital. At the time it was put down to a type of pneumonia of unknown origin, but a ‘retrospective investigation’ confirmed that the man died from coronavirus, according to news portal dailymail.co.uk.

Spain now has 165 cases of coronavirus, with 46 of them in Madrid. Seven of the patients are in intensive care, the news portal said.

The portal did not mention further details of the deceased, while THT could not independently verify when the man visited Nepal and where all did he go.

The Nepali Embassy in Madrid said it was trying to get more details of the deceased’s travel history. The Spanish embassy in New Delhi could not be contacted as phone calls went unanswered, while the Spanish consulate in Kathmandu could not provide travel details of the deceased.

Former president of Spain chapter of the Non-Resident Nepali Association Chintamani Sapkota said the deceased had also travelled to other countries from Nepal before reaching Valencia. “We are trying to ascertain which other countries he visited,” Sapkota told THT over the phone from Madrid.

Global coronavirus infections have crossed 90,000, while over 3,000 have died since the outbreak began in December. More than 80,000 infections have occurred in China, but the outbreak has spread to more than 70 other countries. South Korea, Italy and Iran are the worst-hit outside China.