Beijing: A Chinese doctor who tried to warn the world about a new coronavirus died of the disease Friday, prompting an outpouring of sorrow as the death toll passed 630 and Beijing declared a ‘people’s war’ on the rapidly spreading pathogen.
Li Wenliang, 34, died in the early hours of the morning at the hospital where he worked and first raised the alarm about the new coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, hospital officials said.
An ophthalmologist, Li was one of eight people reprimanded by Wuhan police last month for spreading ‘illegal and false’ information about the coronavirus, a flu-like pathogen that since triggered a global health emergency.
Wenliang’s messages to a group of doctors on Chinese social media warning of a new ‘SARS-like’ coronavirus – a reference to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which killed almost 800 people around the world in 2002-2003 – triggered the wrath of Wuhan police. He was forced to sign a letter January 3 saying he had ‘severely disrupted social order’ and was threatened with criminal charges.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had earlier sought to reassure his citizens and the world that China would beat the coronavirus.
“The whole country has responded with all its strength to respond with the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures, starting a people’s war for epidemic prevention and control,” Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
Many Chinese people on social media described Li as a hero and a tragic figure. “We deeply mourn the death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang… After all-effort rescue, Li passed away on 2.58am, February 7,’ the ruling Communist Party’s ‘People’s Daily’ tweeted.
Some Chinese media outlets described him as a ‘hero who was willing to speak the truth’ while other commentators posted poems, photos and drawings saluting him. “Light a candle and pay tribute to the hero,” one person posted on social media platform ‘Weibo’. “You were the beam of light in the night,” the person added.
China’s Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, reported 69 new deaths Friday, taking the total in China to over 600. It also reported nearly 2,500 new cases, taking the total in China to over 30,000, according to state television.
The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China reached 636 Friday with 73 more deaths recorded the previous day and 3,143 new confirmed infections, bringing the total so far to 31,161 cases, the National Health Commission said.
The virus continued to spread around the world, with 41 new cases reported among about 3,700 people quarantined in a cruise ship moored off Japan, bringing the total to 61 cases onboard.
Seventy three people died Thursday, while another 3,143 new cases of infection were reported. Also, a total of 1,540 patients infected with the virus had been discharged from hospital after recovery by the end of Thursday, said authorities, highlighting that a large number of people are getting cured.
Meanwhile, China opened Thursday a new 1,500-bed makeshift hospital especially built for virus patients, days after a 1,000-bed hospital started functioning with prefabricated wards and isolation rooms in Wuhan.
Agencies