ANKARA 

A senior doctor in China died of the deadly coronavirus 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.

The doctor, 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 Philippines, Japan, France, and Hong Kong – outside mainland China.

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.

- Activist detained

Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized Beijing for detaining a prominent Chinese activist and legal scholar who recently criticized President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus crisis.

“The detention of Xu Zhiyong shows that the Chinese government’s battle against the coronavirus has in no way diverted it from its ongoing general campaign to crush all dissenting voices and its ruthless assault on freedom of expression,” said Amnesty International China Researcher Patrick Poon.

“Xu has been in the authorities’ sights ever since he attended a meeting of human rights activists in Xiamen in December, and he has since criticized President Xi’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.”

The rights group asserted that “Xu Zhiyong and his fellow detainees have committed no crime … [and] have been targeted merely for their peaceful activism.”

It demanded that Chinese authorities must “immediately and unconditionally release them.”

- ‘Death toll may be higher’

Despite Beijing’s official statements, public opinion around the world suggests the number of infections and deaths might be much higher and that Chinese authorities could be hiding the truth.

According to some claims, on the first day of February, the coronavirus tracking system on the official website of Tencent Holdings, one of China's largest technology and software companies, showed the death toll at 24,589.

The number of those infected was at least 154,023, according to the website.

However, the figures were removed soon after with the company claiming they were wrong.