The coronavirus outbreak has now claimed the life of the head of a leading hospital in Wuhan.
Liu Zhiming, head of Wuchang Hospital, died on Tuesday from the Covid-19 virus at his own hospital despite his colleagues’ “all-out efforts to save his life,” reported Chinese state media.
He was 51 years old.
The Wuchang Hospital has been one of the hardest hit during the outbreak, dealing with thousands of sick patients each day. Liu became infected while working to combat the virus.
A representative from Beijing personally expressed “deep condolences” to Liu’s family upon his death.
Last week, China revealed that more than 1,700 medical workers had been infected with the coronavirus. 1,502 of those personnel are from Hubei province and 1,102 from Wuhan alone.
Apart from Liu, six medics have also died from the virus including Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor who was one of the first to sound warnings about the coronavirus, only to be summoned by police for “spreading rumors.”
Earlier this week, the Wuhan government announced that it would be making “sympathy payments” to the families of those medical workers killed by the outbreak, outraging netizens by revealing that the amount would be just 5,000 yuan per family.
