Chinese officials detained doctor who raised alarm over Coronavirus

A doctor (left) talks to a patient during at the ward of a quarantine zone in Wuhan on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

Wuhan: In the midst of growing concerns over the spread of the Coronavirus (nCoV), a shocking story has emerged on how local Chinese officials suppressed and harassed a doctor in Wuhan who raised the alarm about the virus in December last year.

Li Wenliang dropped a bombshell on his medical school alumni group that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and quarantined in his hospital, CNN reported.

Li explained that, according to a test he had seen, the illness was a Coronavirus - a large family of viruses that includes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which led to death of 800 in China and the world in 2003.

The 34-year-old doctor working in Wuhan told his friends to warn their loved ones privately. But within hours screenshots of his messages had gone viral - without his name being blurred.

He was one of several medics targeted by police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak, the CNN report said.

So far the virus has claimed 426 lives with the total number of cases soaring to 20,522 raising concerns over its increasing virulence, China's National Health Commission reported on Tuesday.

Monday saw 64 deaths with 3,235 new confirmed cases mostly in Hubei province, from where India evacuated 647 of its citizens during the weekend.

632
Total no. of people discharged from hospital

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