The head of a hospital in Wuhan, China, died on Monday of the new coronavirus. Liu Zhiming, director of the Wuchang Hospital, is the first hospital director to die in the fight against the coronavirus, Chinese media reported.
The news comes after a 59-year-old nurse died in the same hospital last Friday due to the virus.
A hospital employee said that Liu had always been a healthy man and that he was surprised by the news of his death.
Earlier this month, a Chinese doctor died who warned his colleagues at the end of last year of an outbreak of the new coronavirus.
Li Wenliang also worked in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, where the virus emerged. He was not taken seriously by the Chinese authorities when he raised the alarm.