A 36-year-old Chinese man has died from coronavirus just five days after being discharged from hospital with the all-clear, according to his widow and reports.

In early February, Li Liang had been admitted to a temporary medical center in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 spreading across the globe, his widow, Wang Mei, told the South China Morning Post.

“He only had a low temperature when he was admitted, only just a bit of coughing,” she said, saying he took traditional Chinese medicine twice a day and soon felt so good he volunteered to help at the hospital.

Li was eventually discharged to a temporary quarantine center at the end of the month after two swab tests came back negative for the coronavirus, his widow said.

After initially feeling sprightly enough to exercise daily, he soon started feeling sick again — and eventually died on March 2 after being rushed to Puai Hospital, Wang said.

Coronavirus was listed as the cause of death, according to a released death certificate, according to the International Business Times.

The case is sparking panic in China over the possibility of so-called cleared patients getting reinfected, according to the reports, with a number of Wuhan’s makeshift hospitals suspending plans to discharge patients, according to the Morning Post.

However, officials at the World Health Organisation believe it is more likely that the initial tests that cleared him were wrong, rather than him getting sick again, the International Business Times said.

“From the evidence we have, those cases were not reinfected,” Maria Van Kerkhove, acting head of WHO’s emerging diseases unit, said, according to the report.

Wang is now left fighting for answers over the death of her husband, who was the backbone of the family and had always been healthy, she said.

“Our lives have been turned upside down,” Wang told the Morning Post. “No matter what happens, I want an answer.”