A 57-year-old man in Japan who had threatened to "scatter" his disease after testing positive for the coronavirus this month died in a hospital on Wednesday, local media reported.
Japanese media had reported last week that local health authorities in Gamagori city, Aichi prefecture, had instructed the man to remain at home after he tested positive on March 4. That evening, the man told his family that he was going to "scatter the virus" and headed to an izakaya pub and a hostess bar, media said.
The man stayed at the izakaya pub for 15 minutes without mentioning his illness to anyone. He then stayed for 40 minutes at the hostess bar. During his stay, the man sang karaoke and wrapped his arm around a female worker of the establishment sitting next to him.
Another worker at the bar called police after the 57-year-old told him he had been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Police arrived at the scene and arrested the man. The establishment was closed and disinfected.
The man was hospitalized on March 5 and the man had been under investigation over alleged obstruction of business after both establishments suspended operations, Kyodo News reported. A woman who worked at the hostess bar tested positive for the coronavirus on March 12 after she developed a fever.
An Aichi official said that people who test positive are in principle hospitalized but that if there is no bed available, they are told to stay home.
Aichi's 125 cases represent the second-highest number among Japan's 47 prefectures, according to public broadcaster NHK, as it has been hit hard by a cluster of cases linked to an elderly daycare facility in the capital, Nagoya.
As of Wednesday morning, Japan had 29 deaths and 868 coronavirus cases, excluding those from a cruise ship that was quarantined near Tokyo last month and returnees on chartered flights from China, NHK's tally shows.