Senior Wuhan doctor dies after contracting coronavirus

PanARMENIAN.Net - One of Wuhan’s most senior doctors has died after contracting coronavirus, as authorities began a sweeping campaign inside the city to seek out patients infected with the deadly virus, The Guardian reports.

“Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang hospital, died at 10.30am this morning after resuscitation efforts failed,” reported the China Central Television’s microblog.

Confirmation also emerged of the death of Xu Depu, the former director of the Ezhou city Chinese medicine hospital in Hubei province, from the virus on Thursday last week. A nurse at the hospital on Tuesday, February 17 confirmed his death, as reported in Red Star news, an outlet under state newspaper Chengdu Commercial Daily.

The deaths came as state media reported new house-to-house checks in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people at the centre of the outbreak, that aimed to seek out and “round up” all infected patients. State media said anyone suspected of having the virus would face mandatory testing and anyone who had close contact with virus patients would be put under quarantine.

The death toll from the coronavirus has reached 1,873, as almost half of China's 1.3 billion-strong population remain subject to varying forms of travel restrictions and other quarantine measures.

The number of confirmed cases in China increased by 1,886, bringing the global total to over 73,325.