The hard and dangerous work of battling China's coronavirus epidemic is being done mainly by the country's medics — many of whom live nowhere near the affected areas.

Reports, videos, and staff themselves have shown the scale of the problem: Supplies and protective gear are scarce, and the workload is enormous.

As many as 1,000 medical workers have themselves caught the virus while treating it. Several have died.

Li Wenliang, 34, who helped first raise the alarm about the coronavirus and was punished for it, died of the virus early Friday.

These are the sacrifices that China's medical workers have made, and continue to make.

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Doctors and medical workers are feeling the toll of the deadly Wuhan coronavirus more than anybody except their patients.

As of Friday morning local time the virus, named after its epicenter in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, had killed 635 people and infected nearly 31,000. As many as 1,000 of those infected were medical workers. (For the latest case total and death toll, see Business Insider's live updates here.)

Some workers who contracted the disease have died. More still are working in dire conditions, without the protection or resources they need to control an epidemic. Here is the situation on the ground: