Dr Li Wenliang, who was hailed a hero for raising the alarm about the coronavirus in the early days of the outbreak, has died of the infection.
His death was confirmed by the Wuhan hospital where he worked and was being treated, following conflicting reports about his condition on state media.
Dr Li, 34, tried to send a message to fellow medics about the outbreak at the end of December. Three days later police paid him a visit and told him to stop. He returned to work and caught the virus from a patient. He had been in hospital for at least three weeks.
He posted his story from his hospital bed last month on social media site Weibo.
"Hello everyone, this is Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital," the post begins.
It was a stunning insight into the botched response by local authorities in Wuhan in the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak.
Dr Li was working at the centre of the outbreak in December when he noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars - the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003.
The cases were thought to come from the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan and the patients were in quarantine in his hospital. (BBC website)
Comments