Wuhan Hospital director Liu Zhiming reportedly fighting for life

A hospital director based in the coronavirus epicentre is believed to be in a critical condition after earlier reports suggested he had died.

A hospital director from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak is reportedly in a critical condition after earlier reports suggested he was dead.

Chinese state-run media earlier reported that Dr Liu Zhiming, the head of Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, China, had died from COVID-19. However, local media have since removed posts mentioning the death, and health officials and local outlets are now saying the hospital director is alive and receiving treatment.

Reports starting to trickle out from Chinese media that Dr Liu Zhiming - head of Wuchang hospital in the embattled city of Wuhan - is seriously ill

— Toby Bakare (@tobybakare) February 17, 2020

Dr Liu Zhiming, head of Wuchang Hospital.

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A health official from Hubei province confirmed on social media that Dr Zhiming was receiving treatment for COVID-19, according to The Daily Mail. The social media account run by a director from Hubei Provincial Health Commission said Dr Zhiming had become critically ill and had since been resuscitated.

Multiple reports suggest the information coming from Chinese sources regarding Dr Zhiming is not reliable.

The backtrack in reporting on the director’s death has been compared to media coverage of the death of Dr Li Wenliang. Dr Wenliang was an ophthalmologist who worked in the Wuhan Central Hospital during the outbreak of COVID-19. In the early days of the outbreak, he attempted to warn his colleagues of the burgeoning threat on social media.

Dr Wenliang was then disciplined by authorities for spreading “false” news online and later contracted COVID-19 while working at the Wuhan Central Hospital. News began to circulate of his death on February 6, but state-run media later deleted the reports. He was still alive and receiving treatment at the hospital.

However, his death was confirmed by the hospital in the early hours of February 7, triggering an outpouring of grief from the public.

There have now been more than 71,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally. Of those, 70,635 were in China, according to a report from the World Health Organisation published today.

The death toll has jumped to more than 1800 globally, with all but three of those deaths inside China.