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A Wuhan doctor has died of the deadly coronavirus jet over a month after he was arrested for publicly sharing his concerns about the disease.

Li Wenliang, 34, had been fighting on the front line against against the disease but developed a cough and fever on January 10th.

The Chinese ophthalmologist has been quarantined since the diagnosis, but state own-media reported Li passed away from the disease today.

In a tweet, the Global Times claimed Li had died from the virus early this morning, nearly a month after he fell ill.

Conflicting reports earlier suggested Li may actually be alive after Wuhan Central Hospital denied the doctor's death.

Posting to its official Weibo account, the hospital said: "In the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection, our hospital's ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was unfortunately infected.

"He is currently in critical condition and we are trying our best to resuscitate him".

(Image: Weibo)

Wenliang was cautioned by Wuhan police on December 30 for writing a warning about the potential pandemic in a group chat.

The doctor is one of eight people who warned patients had been "quarantined in the emergency department," and a friend of his responded referring to the 2002 SARS outbreak.

Three days after sending his message, Dr Li was arrested in the middle of the night when police turned up at his home.

Health authority officials then summoned Wenliang for an urgent late-night meeting, and was allegedly forced to sign a confession that his group chat message was “illegal behaviour."

According to a photo of the letter included in Wenliang post, he had been cautioned by police on January 3 for “making untrue comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order.”

At around the same time, the Xinhua News Agency issued a warning to the public that stated: “The police call on all [internet users] to not fabricate rumours, not spread rumours, not believe rumours.”

Since his death, the hashtag "The Wuhan government owes Li Wenliang an apology" has been viewed 180m times on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the Financial Times reports.

(Image: Getty Images)

The Chinese Supreme People’s Court later criticised the Wuhan police for reprimanding Wenliang and other coronavirus whistleblowers. A day later, the police wrote on Weibo that the whistleblowers had only been “educated and criticised,” and had not been “warned, fined, or taken into custody.”

Now, Dr Li, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, has himself fallen victim to the illness he warned about.

He is one of a number of so-called "rumourmongers" who are said to have been warned over speaking out about the seriousness of the situation in its early days, reports CNN.

China’s Supreme Court last week slammed Wuhan police for punishing the “rumormongers" and "whistleblowers".

The court ruling said: “It might have been a fortunate thing for containing the new coronavirus, if the public had listened to this ‘rumor’ at the time, and adopted measures such as wearing masks, strict disinfection and avoiding going to the wildlife market."