Doctors Did Not Escape The Corona Virus, Until Someone Died

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The death toll in China due to a new type of corona virus that attacks the lungs has increased to 52 people as of Sunday morning. In fact, three Beijing doctors tested positive after returning from Wuhan, Hubei Province, as the first area where the case was found.

The state television China Global Television Network reported that Liang Wudong, a 62-year-old doctor at the Hubei Xinhua Hospital who is at the forefront of the outbreak in Wuhan City, died of the coronavirus.

Media in China, namely the South China Morning Post, said Liang died on Saturday, January 25 at 07.00 local time. Liang is suspected of being infected with the corona virus since last week.

Previously, Liang was treated at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan for further medical treatment, but his life was still beyond help. Liang's passing marked the first death among medical professionals since the coronavirus broke out in China.

Overall, the virus outbreaks totaled 1,287 cases, both positive and suspected, throughout mainland China. Of that number, 549 of them were from Hubei Province and 85 people have tested negative and have been allowed to leave for hospitals.

Meanwhile, in Beijing there are 10 new cases, including three doctors, so to date the total is 51 cases. Of the three doctors from Beijing who contracted the 2019-nCoV virus, two of them had traveled to Wuhan, while the other had sat with a sufferer at one of the meetings in Wuhan, as reported by CGTN, the official Chinese government television station.

Starting Sunday, the Beijing Municipal Highway Traffic Service closed all access to inter-provincial passenger and freight vehicles. One of the inter-provincial bus companies from Beijing's Daxing International Airport has suspended services outside the province since Saturday 25 January.

Since Friday, health workers assisted by police officers have visited every house or apartment in Beijing to ensure that there are no residents from Wuhan or have recently traveled from Wuhan.

Until now, Dongcheng District is still free of cases of virus outbreaks transmitted by snakes and bats in Huanan Market, Wuhan, Hubei Province. The Beijing-Wuhan distance is about 1,500 kilometers.

As many as 150 medics from the Army Medical University were flown from Chongqing City to Wuhan to help deal with the deadly outbreak on Thursday, January 24, or D-1 Chinese New Year in China.