The coronavirus crisis in China is deepening as the number of people infected by the virus has reached 31,000 and a doctor who was punished after raising alarm about the outbreak died from the pathogen on Friday.
More than 630 people have now been killed by a virus that ophthalmologist Li Wenliang and colleagues had first brought to light in late December. The disease has since spread across China, prompting the government to lock down cities of tens of millions of people, while global panic has risen as more than 240 cases have emerged in two dozen countries. A quarantined cruise ship in Japan now has 61 confirmed cases. His death also highlights the enormous risks that frontline doctors have taken to treat patients in overwhelmed and under-equipped hospitals in Wuhan, the quarantined city of 11 million people where the virus emerged in December.