Chinese daily The Global Times said a person from southwestern Yunnan province passed away after contracting the virus.

"A person from Yunnan Province died while on his way back to Shandong Province for work on a chartered bus on Monday," the newspaper tweeted.

It added that 32 fellow passengers on the bus had also been tested. Information on their test results was not provided.

The viral disease was first reported in the U.S. in 1993. It is transmitted to humans by rodents such as mice and rats.

No human-to-human transmission of this virus has been found except for Argentina in 1996 when it was suggested that “strains of hantaviruses in South America may be transmissible from person to person,” according to U.S.-based centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

The development comes at a time when the world is battling coronavirus, also known as Covid-19.