YANGON (REUTERS, XINHUA) -Myanmar reported its first coronavirus death on Tuesday (March 31), a 69-year-old man who also had cancer and died in a hospital in the commercial capital of Yangon, a government spokesman said.

The patient who was suffering from nasal cancer arrived in the country on March 14 after his one-month stay in Australia for health treatment and a four-day stay in Singapore.

He passed away on Tuesday morning in the intensive care unit at Waibargi Specialist Hospital for Covid-19.

Myanmar has confirmed 14 cases of the virus, mostly in people who have travelled overseas.

But the ministry of health on Sunday warned the country was at very high risk of a "major outbreak" after tens of thousands of migrants working in neighbouring Thailand rushed home before the border closed.

The country has a weak healthcare system after decades of neglect under the former ruling military junta.