A Chinese doctor who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak died on Friday after coming down with the illness in early January, a hospital reported.
A Chinese doctor who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak died on Friday after coming down with the illness in early January, a hospital reported.
The Wuhan Central Hospital said on its social media account that Dr. Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, was “unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection.”
“We deeply regret and mourn this,” it said.
The outbreak, centred in Wuhan, has now infected over 28,200 people globally and killed more than 560, according to latest figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China has reached 636 as of the end of Thursday, up by 73 from the previous day, the country’s National Health Commission said.
Out of the total rise in the toll, central Hubei province — epicenter of the outbreak — reported 69 deaths, including 64 in the provincial capital Wuhan.
Across mainland China, there were 3,143 new confirmed infections on Thursday, bringing the total so far to 31,161.
Li was reprimanded by local police for “spreading rumours” about the illness in late December, according to news reports.
He had told a group of doctors on Chinese social media and messaging platform WeChat that seven cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had been confirmed linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, believed to be the source of the virus.
Within a half-hour of announcing earlier Friday that Li was in critical condition, the hospital received nearly 500,000 comments on its social media post, many of them from people hoping Li would pull through. One wrote: “We are not going to bed. We are here waiting for a miracle.”
Li was among a number of medical professionals in Wuhan who tried to warn colleagues and others when the government did not, the New York Times reported earlier this week. It said that after the mystery illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, Li said of them in the online chat group Dec. 30: “Quarantined in the emergency department.”
Another participant in the chat responded by wondering, “Is SARS coming again?” — a reference to the 2002-03 viral outbreak that killed hundreds, the newspaper said.
Wuhan health officials summoned Li in the