(Eagle News) – A doctor who had been “at the frontline” treating patients with suspected coronavirus in Wuhan died from the virus, according to a tweet from the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The doctor who died from the coronavirus infection was identified as Liang Wudong. He was 62 years old.
CGTN said that the doctor worked at the Hubei Xinhua Hospital and had been at the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in Hubei, the province where the city of Wuhan is located.
CGTN also tweeted about the case of a 46-year old patient in east China’s Zhejiang Province who had been cured.
The cured patient who was only identified by his surname Yang is said to be the first Coronavirus patient in the province to be cured.
It said that he had been undergoing treatment in the hospital for a week.
CGTN is a Chinese international English-language news channel of the state-owned China Global Television Network group, which is part of Beijing-based China Central Television and under the control of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China.
-450 more medics deployed in Wuhan-
This case of a doctor succumbing to the deadly virus came about as China deployed 450 military medical staff to Wuhan.
The China state media said the additional medics arrived on military aircraft late Friday.
They include doctors with experience combating SARS or Ebola, and will be dispatched to hospitals that are reportedly short on beds due to a crush of infected patients and worried locals.
– Protect yourself –
“Everyone is just trying to protect themselves,” said a man in a surgical mask at a store where customers were stocking up on protective gear.
But the man, who declined to give his name, expressed confidence in Chinese authorities.
“The government is in control of this. It’s not a problem.”
The virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003 and spread to a number of other countries.
It has now been reported nationwide and in a dozen other countries, with France on Friday saying three cases had been confirmed there — the first known infections in Europe.
On Saturday, when they should have been celebrating, citizens of Wuhan stood in line at a pharmacy to buy masks from employees in full-body protective suits and surgical gloves.
China has launched a massive quarantine effort across much of Hubei province, affecting more than 40 million people.
On the eastern outskirts of Wuhan — Hubei’s capital and the original source of the previously unknown 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) — police manning a roadblock turned away a handful of vehicles trying to escape the city.
“Nobody can leave,” an officer told AFP.
But the respiratory contagion continues to spread.
The nationwide death toll has now jumped to 41, the government said Saturday, after 15 more people died in Wuhan.
Confirmed cases of infection nationwide also surged, to 1,287, up from 830 reported 24 hours earlier. Most of the deaths and overall cases have been in Hubei.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)