Wuhan Wuchang Hospital president Liu Zhiming in Hubei province died of the COVID-19 or novel coronavirus pneumonia at 10: 30 am on Tuesday (February 18), China Central Television reported.
Liu was a neurosurgeon and the most senior health worker known to have died because of the coronavirus epidemic. His death could spark criticisms that China’s government is not doing enough measures to protect its medical frontliners.
“Unfortunately, he became infected and passed away at 10:54 Tuesday morning at the age of 51 after all-out efforts to save him failed,” reported the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. A medical colleague said that the chief doctor was in good health and did not expect to die from COVID-19.
A few days earlier, on February 14, a 59-year-old nurse from the same hospital had died from the disease. A total of at least 7 health workers have been killed so far among the 1,716 doctors and nurses who got infected with COVID-19.
Wuhan hospital president died of COVID-19
On February 6, a 27-year-old doctor, Song Yingjie, had died of a heart attack after working 10 straight days on the front lines of the 2019 nCoV outbreak. Yingjie had worked non-stop since January 25. He was a team leader at a local medical clinic in Hunan province.
On February 7, Li Wenliang, the doctor who tried to issue the first warning about the deadly coronavirus outbreak has died. Wenliang sent out a warning to fellow health workers on December 30, but authorities told him to stop “making false comments.”
State media reported Tuesday that doctors and nurses who died while trying to contain the outbreak would officially be declared as “martyrs.”
As of today, February 19, COVID-19 has infected 75,134 people and killed 2,007.