Wuhan hospital director becomes latest health worker to die from coronavirus

(Image credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 19 February 2020

A hospital director in Wuhan, China, is the country's latest health-care worker to die from the coronavirus outbreak.

Liu Zhiming, 51, was a neurosurgeon and director of the Wuchang Hospital. Wuhan's health bureau said he died on Tuesday morning, after making "important contributions in the work of fighting and controlling" the coronavirus, known as COVID-19. More than 1,700 doctors and nurses treating patients with COVID-19 have become sick with the virus, and at least seven have died, The Associated Press reports.

Earlier this month, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist named Li Wenliang died of COVID-19. In December, Li told some of his medical school classmates about a mysterious respiratory illness that was spreading in the area; health authorities soon visited him in the middle of the night, followed by police officers who warned him to stop talking about the virus. He became ill after caring for a woman with glaucoma who unknowingly had COVID-19. As of Tuesday, the Chinese government has confirmed 72,436 cases of COVID-19 on mainland China, as well as 1,868 deaths.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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