Late last year a deadly virus outbreak occurred and so far, it has claimed the lives of over 600 persons.

News has it now that the doctor who sounded the alarm about the new coronavirus outbreak has died of the disease. The Wuhan hospital where he was being treated made this known today, the 7th of February, 2020.

The 33-year-old Li Wenliang, is an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the focal point of the outbreak.

The state-run media, Global Times, initially reported that Dr Li had died of the novel coronavirus; however, they later reported he was instead critically ill.

He had alerted his colleagues about a cluster of infections tied to an animal market Wuhan.

He raised the alarm about the virus on December 30 but was silenced by local police; Li was accused of rumour-mongering by the Wuhan police.

Also, according to Li, the hospital management had rebuked him too.

Initially, Li said he thought the disease was a reoccurrence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

SARS had occurred in 2002-2003 killing hundreds of people across China

However, the Wuhan government has been reprimanded for a failure to reveal in a suitable manner the cruelty of the novel illness.

Consequently, that has led to the increase in infections among medical staff and the public.

As of February 6th 2020, a total of 31,161 infections; 636 deaths from the novel coronavirus has been reported across China

According to the National Health Commission, the disease has also spread to more than twenty other countries around the world.