A senior doctor in China died of the deadly coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday, according to Chinese health authorities.

In a statement, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said Liu Zhiming, the deputy secretary and dean of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, contracted the virus while treating patients.

Liu, 51, was provided intensive care but the infection proved fatal.

“Since the outbreak, Liu, heedless of his personal safety, led the medical staff of Wuchang Hospital to fight the epidemic, and made important contributions to the prevention and control of [the] new-type coronavirus pneumonia in our city,” the commission said.

Liu is the second high-profile victim among medics treating patients of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus that originated in Wuhan, China, last December.

Earlier this month, Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, died after contracting the fatal coronavirus.

He was among the eight doctors who first warned that Wuhan was witnessing a situation similar to the 2003 SARS outbreak.

The Chinese government has announced it will honor medical staff and other personnel who died in the fight against the coronavirus as “martyrs”.

The death toll across the country rose to over 1,800 on Tuesday, while four deaths have been confirmed in the Philippines, Japan and France and in China’s administrative region Hong Kong.

Nearly 74,000 cases have been confirmed in China and other countries, and the number of people under observation in China is over 141,000. (Anadolu)