Chinese doctor, who sounded the alarm 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market' on December 30, dies from coronavirus
A Chinese doctor who sounded the alarm on coronavirus two weeks before it was officially confirmed has died, the Wuhan Central Hospital have revealed.
Li Wenliang, 34, succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time despite attempts to resuscitate him.
The ophthalmologist caught the public's attention after he was reprimanded by police and accused of spreading 'fake news' for warning on social media of 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market' on December 30.
Li's post came two weeks before coronavirus broke out in the city of 14 million which has been locked down since January 20.
Through its official Weibo (social media) account, the hospital wrote: 'Our hospital's ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was infected during the fight of the epidemic of the new coronavirus pneumonia, and died at 2:58am on the morning of February 7 despite the fact that we had tried our best to resuscitate him.
'We hereby express our deep regret and sincere condolences.'
It comes as more than 28,000 people have been infected worldwide and the death toll has climbed to 630. The overwhelming majority are in China, but more than 200 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries, including three cases in the UK, 12 in the US and 14 in Australia.
Li, a medic at the Wuhan Central Hospital, confirmed his infection on his social media account on Saturday.
His death was reported by state newspaper Global Times at around 9:30pm local time today.
The post gathered tens of thousands of comments in a matter of minutes, but was later removed by the newspaper for unspecified reasons.
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.'
World Health Organization (WHO) wrote on its official Twitter account: 'We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on #2019nCoV.'
Meanwhile, a newborn became the youngest known person infected with the virus.
China finished building a second new hospital Thursday to isolate and treat patients and moved people with milder symptoms into makeshift quarantine centres at sports arenas, exhibition halls and other public spaces. And testing of a new antiviral drug was set to begin on patients.
While the overwhelming majority of deaths and infections haven been in China, more than 200 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.
China's National Health Commission said the number of infected patients who were 'discharged and cured' stood at 1,153. No details were given, but milder cases have been seen in younger, healthier people.
The youngest patient is a baby born Saturday in Wuhan and confirmed positive just 36 hours after birth, authorities said.
'The baby was immediately separated from the mother after the birth and has been under artificial feeding. There was no close contact with the parents, yet it was diagnosed with the disease,' Zeng Lingkong, director of neonatal diseases at Wuhan Children's Hospital, told Chinese TV.
Zeng said other infected mothers have given birth to babies who tested negative, so it is not yet known if the virus can be transmitted in the womb. That 'needs further study,' he said.
The posts caught the attention of the police after one person in the chatting group uploaded a screen grab of the conversation onto the internet.
According to Huaxi Urban Daily, the eight accused medics shared similar messages on three chatting groups, all attended by Wuhan medics. The messages warned the medics to pay attention to a possible outbreak of what they thought was SARS.
Li Wenliang, 34, succumbed to the deadly contagion in the early hours of Friday morning local time despite attempts to resuscitate him.
The ophthalmologist caught the public's attention after he was reprimanded by police and accused of spreading 'fake news' for warning on social media of 'SARS at a Wuhan seafood market' on December 30.
Li's post came two weeks before coronavirus broke out in the city of 14 million which has been locked down since January 20.
Through its official Weibo (social media) account, the hospital wrote: 'Our hospital's ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was infected during the fight of the epidemic of the new coronavirus pneumonia, and died at 2:58am on the morning of February 7 despite the fact that we had tried our best to resuscitate him.
'We hereby express our deep regret and sincere condolences.'
It comes as more than 28,000 people have been infected worldwide and the death toll has climbed to 630. The overwhelming majority are in China, but more than 200 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries, including three cases in the UK, 12 in the US and 14 in Australia.
Li, a medic at the Wuhan Central Hospital, confirmed his infection on his social media account on Saturday.
His death was reported by state newspaper Global Times at around 9:30pm local time today.
The post gathered tens of thousands of comments in a matter of minutes, but was later removed by the newspaper for unspecified reasons.
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.'
World Health Organization (WHO) wrote on its official Twitter account: 'We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did on #2019nCoV.'
Meanwhile, a newborn became the youngest known person infected with the virus.
China finished building a second new hospital Thursday to isolate and treat patients and moved people with milder symptoms into makeshift quarantine centres at sports arenas, exhibition halls and other public spaces. And testing of a new antiviral drug was set to begin on patients.
While the overwhelming majority of deaths and infections haven been in China, more than 200 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.
China's National Health Commission said the number of infected patients who were 'discharged and cured' stood at 1,153. No details were given, but milder cases have been seen in younger, healthier people.
The youngest patient is a baby born Saturday in Wuhan and confirmed positive just 36 hours after birth, authorities said.
'The baby was immediately separated from the mother after the birth and has been under artificial feeding. There was no close contact with the parents, yet it was diagnosed with the disease,' Zeng Lingkong, director of neonatal diseases at Wuhan Children's Hospital, told Chinese TV.
Zeng said other infected mothers have given birth to babies who tested negative, so it is not yet known if the virus can be transmitted in the womb. That 'needs further study,' he said.
The posts caught the attention of the police after one person in the chatting group uploaded a screen grab of the conversation onto the internet.
According to Huaxi Urban Daily, the eight accused medics shared similar messages on three chatting groups, all attended by Wuhan medics. The messages warned the medics to pay attention to a possible outbreak of what they thought was SARS.
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