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(Bloomberg) — A Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded by police after warning colleagues about a new respiratory disease emerging in Wuhan, has died after falling ill, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Li, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central hospital, had been admitted to a hospital in early January and later confirmed to have the coronavirus, according to a post on his social media account. The exact cause of death wasn’t immediately known.

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On Dec. 30, he had posted in a social media group about a SARS-like illness on the same day that Chinese authorities confirmed they were investigating 27 cases of viral pneumonia. Officials at the epicenter in Wuhan — the capital of Hubei province, where millions are now trapped in an unprecedented lockdown — sent an “urgent notice” to all hospitals about the existence of “pneumonia of unclear cause.”

The notice ordered all departments to immediately compile information about known cases and report them up their chain of command. But it did not mention SARS or a coronavirus.