First Pakistani coronavirus patient in Italy passes away.

ISLAMABAD -- First Pakistani patient of COVID-19, the mysterious viral pneumonia-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has passed away in an Italian town on Wednesday, the Foreign Office said.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aisha Farooqui told media that a 61-year-old man, identified as Imtiaz Ahmad, has died of coronavirus disease in Brescia - an Italian town in the northern Italian region of Lombardy located some 100 miles away from Milan.

The consulate has been in touch with the family and Italian authorities on this matter, the official added.

Italy has witnessed more than half of all the deaths recorded outside China since the epidemic first started spreading from the Asian giant's central Wuhan province in January.

The epidemic has already killed 631 people and put the country's hospitals and the economy under severe strain.

The Italian government responded to the outbreak last month by quarantining 50,000 people in 11 villages that were worst affected in the north.

That was followed on Sunday with restrictions on travel and public gatherings in Milan's Lombardy region and surrounding areas such as Venice in which more than 15 million live and 40 per cent of the nation's economic activity occurs.

The Lombardy measures were extended to all of the Mediterranean country's 60 million people on Tuesday morning.

The restrictions have had a profound effect on the way Italians live and work.

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