The director of Wuhan’s Wuchang Hospital is among the nearly 1,900 individuals who have died in China after contracting the novel coronavirus.
The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission confirmed on Tuesday that Liu Zhiming, 51, died after contracting the SARs-like illness. The deadly virus has claimed the lives of over 1,800 people in the country and infected over 72,000 others, according to the data released by the Chinese Communist Party. The legitimacy of the data released by Chinese officials on the illness has been called into question as no outside officials have been able to confirm the situation on the ground.
In a statement about Liu’s death, the health commission wrote, “Since the outbreak, Comrade Liu Zhiming, regardless of his personal safety, led the medical staff of Wuchang Hospital to fight the epidemic, and made important contributions to the prevention and control of new-type coronavirus pneumonia in our city.”
China has been flooding Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million residents, with medical professionals to try to treat the disease. The city constructed two hospitals in just weeks to house those who have been infected and has placed most of the city under quarantine.
Liu was the ninth medical official to succumb to the virus. Li Wenliang, the doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital who first blew the whistle about the coronavirus, also died of the illness earlier this month.
China’s Central Military Commission announced on Monday that medical professionals who die of the illness will be granted “martyr” status, which provides their families with “preferential treatment” following their deaths.
