Dr Li Wenliang, 34, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, sent a message in a chat group on 30 December to fellow doctors warning them of a possible virus outbreak.
The Chinese doctor who blew the whistle on the outbreak of the coronavirus is said to be in a critical condition after initial reports that he had died.
He was then told by police to stop “making false comments”.
Last week, Dr Li said he had been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Earlier today, Chinese media reports reported he had died in hospital in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak originated.
The World Health Organisation even paid tribute to the doctor, with Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, saying he was “very sad”.
“We should celebrate his life and mourn his death with his colleagues,” he added.
However, soon after, the state-run outlet Global News issued an update saying Dr Li was “critically ill” after his heart stopped beating.
At around 5pm on Thursday, the Global Times posted another tweet saying Dr Li was still under emergency treatment.
They said reporters had heard “people weeping” inside the intensive care unit and described Li as one of “8 whistle-blowers who tried to warn other medics of the #coronavirus outbreak in Dec but were reprimanded by Wuhan police”.
The South China Morning Post reported Wuhan hospital saying on its official Weibo account that doctors were trying to “resuscitate” Dr Li.
Dr Li shared the warning after he noticed seven cases of a virus he thought resembles Sars, the deadly illness which spread in 2003.
Four days after his warning he was called to a police station to sign a letter in which he was accused of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order”.
No comments:
Post a Comment