Coronavirus: Wuhan hospital director dies as death toll crosses 1,800
The head of a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan died on Tuesday after being infected with the novel coronavirus. Liu Zhiming, director of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, died after all efforts to rescue him failed. Notably, Liu's death was first reported shortly after midnight, following which the reports were retracted until they were re-confirmed. Here are more details.
Liu died after 'all-out rescue efforts failed'
Reportedly, Liu died on Tuesday morning after "all-out rescue efforts failed." Liu is the sixth medical worker to have died from the virus, which has also infected 1,716 medical workers. Chinese media and bloggers first reported his death shortly past midnight, however, the reports were later deleted and altered to state that efforts were on to save Liu. Eventually, his death was confirmed.
Liu's death similar to death of Wuhan whistleblower
The apparent media confusion over Liu's death bears a striking similarity to another Wuhan doctor's death: Li Wenliang. Li died in the early hours of February 7. After reports of his death were first published, they were quickly retracted, before being re-confirmed. Li was notably the first person to raise an alarm over the coronavirus outbreak, however, he was initially silenced by Chinese authorities.
'They forcefully attempted resuscitation': Social media erupts in anger
Liu's death invited a strong reaction on Weibo—China's alternative for Twitter—where people drew parallels between the deaths of the two doctors. Agence France-Presse quoted one person as saying on Weibo, "Has everyone forgotten what happened to Li Wenliang? They forcefully attempted resuscitation after he died." Another said that Liu "already died last night, (but) some people are addicted to torturing corpses."
Coronavirus death toll crosses 1,800; over 73,000 infected
The outbreak started in mid-December when authorities noticed a "SARS-like" virus sickening people in Wuhan, a city in China's Hubei province. A new strain of coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2 (previously named 2019-nCoV), was detected causing flu-like symptoms, severe pneumonia, multiple organ failure or death. The disease caused by the virus (COVID-19) has since infected over 73,000 people across two dozen countries and killed 1,874.
