A US citizen has died from the new coronavirus at the epicenter of the epidemic in China, the US embassy said Saturday, in what appears to be the first confirmed foreign death from the outbreak.

"We can confirm that a 60-year-old US citizen diagnosed with coronavirus died at a hospital in Wuhan, China, on February 6," an embassy spokesman told AFP.

As of Saturday, over 700 people have died while nearly 35,000 have been infected of the virus, an acute respiratory disease.

The virus was known to have originated from a public market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold as delicacies. The city is currently on lockdown.

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