<p>Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistle-blowers who warned other medics of the coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday, official media reported.</p>.<p>Li, a 34-year-old doctor who tried to warn other medics of the epidemic, died of coronavirus on Thursday in Wuhan, the state-run Global Times reported.</p>.<p>He was the first to report about the virus way back in December last year when it first emerged in Wuhan, the provincial capital of China's central Hubei province.</p>.<p>He dropped a bombshell in his medical school alumni group on the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and quarantined in his hospital.</p>.<p>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 800 death in China and the world in 2003.</p>.<p>Li told his friends to warn their loved ones privately. But within hours screenshots of his messages had gone viral - without his name being blurred.</p>.<p>"When I saw them circulating online, I realised that it was out of my control and I would probably be punished," Li was quoted as saying CNN recently.</p>.<p>He was one of several medics targeted by the police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak.</p>.<p>Overall 564 people have died in China due to the virus and 28,018 confirmed cases have been reported from 31 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission reported on Thursday.</p>
<p>Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, one of the eight whistle-blowers who warned other medics of the coronavirus outbreak but were reprimanded by the police, died of the epidemic on Thursday, official media reported.</p>.<p>Li, a 34-year-old doctor who tried to warn other medics of the epidemic, died of coronavirus on Thursday in Wuhan, the state-run Global Times reported.</p>.<p>He was the first to report about the virus way back in December last year when it first emerged in Wuhan, the provincial capital of China's central Hubei province.</p>.<p>He dropped a bombshell in his medical school alumni group on the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and quarantined in his hospital.</p>.<p>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 800 death in China and the world in 2003.</p>.<p>Li told his friends to warn their loved ones privately. But within hours screenshots of his messages had gone viral - without his name being blurred.</p>.<p>"When I saw them circulating online, I realised that it was out of my control and I would probably be punished," Li was quoted as saying CNN recently.</p>.<p>He was one of several medics targeted by the police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak.</p>.<p>Overall 564 people have died in China due to the virus and 28,018 confirmed cases have been reported from 31 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission reported on Thursday.</p>