The Wuhan Central Hospital said on its social media account that Dr Li was "unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection". Loading "We deeply regret and mourn this," it added. Word of the coronavirus outbreak began to spread in China thanks to Dr Li, but his posts were censored and he was detained on January 1 for "rumour-mongering." The full outline of his story, which came to light in recent weeks as the Wuhan outbreak exploded into an international emergency, set off a swell of outrage in China, where citizens have long chafed at the government's penchant for relentlessly snuffing out any speech deemed threatening to social stability.

Many, including China's judicial authorities in a rare rebuke of the police, have wondered whether the epidemic could have unfolded differently had Dr Li not been silenced at a critical juncture around the Lunar New Year holiday in late January. Guan Hanfeng, an orthopedist at Wuhan's Tongji Hospital, and Luo Yu, a technology industry executive who was one of the deceased doctor's university classmates, broke the news of Dr Li's death. Chinese doctor Li Wenliang has died in Wuhan. "The Wuhan government owes Dr Li Wenliang an apology," Mr Luo wrote in a widely circulated post on Weibo as tributes flowed in. Chinese authorities on December 31 informed the World Health Organisation's China office of the mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan. But it would be weeks before Chinese health officials acknowledged the seriousness of the outbreak and began to take unprecedented measures to lock down tens of millions of people in Wuhan and surrounding areas.

Mike Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organisation's health emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr Li Wenliang. We all need to celebrate work that he did." Loading Dr Li was released from detention on January 3 after signing a police document admitting that he had committed an illegal act by making "untrue statements" on social media and promising that he would "earnestly reflect" on his mistakes. After they detained Dr Li, Wuhan police appeared on Chinese state television to warn the public about the dangers of spreading rumours. In a co-ordinated state media push that same day, they urged internet users across the country to not believe online rumours and help build a "clear and bright cyberspace". Days after he was released, Dr Li returned to work, receiving patients who were beginning to flood into Wuhan's hospitals.

He began coughing on January 10, he later recalled. On February 1, three weeks after he checked himself into his hospital, he told his social media followers that he had finally been tested: he was indeed infected by the coronavirus. As he spent his final days in Wuhan Central's intensive care unit, Dr Li began publicly sharing how he had sought to warn friends about the new virus, his ordeal with the police and his fight with illness. He revealed that he lived with a pregnant wife and a young child and had quickly quarantined himself as soon as he suspected he was infected. His mother and father were now hospitalised for fever, he said, without disclosing whether they — or his wife and child — had contracted the coronavirus. But he maintained an upbeat presence on social media and assured his followers that he had kept his medical licence and hoped to leave the hospital as soon as possible.

Loading "I've seen the support and encouragement so many people online have given me," he wrote. "It makes my feel a little more relaxed in my heart." As word of his passing trickled out on Thursday night, his followers left messages on his Weibo account pleading in vain for him to post one last update. Hours after his death was confirmed, Chinese users began repeating a literary verse to express their gratitude for a man they felt their country did not deserve. "He who holds the firewood for the masses," they wrote, "is the one who freezes to death in wind and snow." Workers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant inside a subway in Seoul, South Korea. Credit:Bloomberg