A nurse in a protective suit feeds a coronavirus patient inside an isolated ward at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University on February 8, 2020. China Daily via Reuters

BEIJING — The director of a Chinese hospital located in the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak died Tuesday, adding to the number of medical staff who have lost their lives to the contagious disease. Liu Zhiming, 51, died Tuesday morning of the new coronavirus after an all-out rescue effort failed to save him, the Wuhan municipal health commission said in Chinese on its website, according to a CNBC translation. He was the director of the city's Wuchang Hospital. It is one of the designated hospitals for treating the virus, which emerged in the city in December before spreading around the country.

Wuhan, a city of about 11 million people, still accounts for the majority of deaths and confirmed cases from the new virus. Roughly three-fourths of the over 1,800 people who have died of the disease in mainland China are from the city, according to the National Health Commission. Firsthand accounts about the health-care conditions in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province remain grim, with reports of shortages in medical staff, supplies and hospital beds. The city has raced to build two new designated hospitals and repurpose other locations to care for the more than 40,000 confirmed cases. As of Monday night, the number of beds at designated Wuhan hospitals was less than half that figure at just over 19,100 — and 94% were filled, according to Wuhan's health commission's website. The report also showed that out of 45 facilities, 17 had zero beds available.

Health care workers at risk