A 63-year-old diabetic smoker with alcoholism was the first mortality case of corona-virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Taiwan. As concurrently infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae and subsequently with Klebsiella aerogenes, he was exposed by a national survey of patients with critically influenza-negative pneumonia. We recommend COVID-19 screening for patients with severe flu-like syndrome and protecting health-care workers from being infected. Copyright (C) 2020, Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.
