Photo: Sina Weibo

Zhu Heping, a doctor from the ophthalmology department at Wuhan Central Hospital, died of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) on Monday, according to several sources close to the matter and local media. 

Zhu was a colleague of Li Wenliang, who was deemed a "whistleblower"  for sounding the alarm about a lurking outbreak in Wuhan in the early stages and died from the infection. 

Zhu, aged 67, was an expert who was invited back to work after he had retired. Zhu was a hard-working and humble man, according to media reports, citing some of his colleagues and acquaintances. He was admitted into hospital in mid-February after being infected with COVID-19, and died from the disease on Monday morning, the reports said. 

Two doctors from Wuhan Central Hospital and Tongji Hospital, in epicenter Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, confirmed this information with the Global Times. 

Zhu was the third doctor from the ophthalmology department of Wuhan Central Hospital who died from the disease, after Li died on February 7 and his colleague Mei Zhongming, another 57-year-old eye doctor, died on Tuesday. 

Another doctor from the thyroid and breast surgery department of the hospital, Jiang Xueqing, aged 55, also died from the coronavirus on March 1. 

More than 3,000 medical staff in Central China's Hubei Province have been infected since the outbreak, of which 40 percent occurred in hospitals and 60 percent in communities, according to official data on Friday. 

One of Zhu's colleagues remembered him as a doctor who kept a low profile and who would offer help whenever other colleagues had questions, local media Chutian Metropolis Daily said. 

"When he left us, many people never even knew that he had been sick," a netizen said in a post shared on social media. 

As a retired senior doctor, Zhu actively took part in giving medical training, another netizen said, noting that he would not even take dinner boxes when they were served, as he was worried that the younger staff would not have enough food. 

Many netizens said they felt heartbroken at seeing another good doctor taken away. "R.I.P. Hope all the frontline doctors and nurses are fine," said a netizen. 

"We have sacrificed too much," another one said. 

China's top health and human resources authorities announced Thursday to honor 472 outstanding individuals and 113 groups in the country's healthcare system in combating the deadly coronavirus, while 34 frontline medical staff, including Li Wenliang, who sacrificed their lives in the battle, were also honored posthumously. 

Global Times