A Chinese doctor who tried to issue the first warning about the deadly coronavirus outbreak has died, the hospital treating him has said.
Li Wenliang contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital.
He had sent out a warning to fellow medics on 30 December but police told him to stop “making false comments”.
There had been contradictory reports about his death, but the People’s Daily now says he died at 02:58 on Friday (18:58 GMT Thursday).
The virus has killed 636 people and infected 31,161 in mainland China, the National Health Commission’s latest figures show.
The death toll includes 73 new deaths reported on Thursday.
Dr. Li, an ophthalmologist, posted his story on Weibo from a hospital bed a month after sending out his initial warning.
The 34-year-old had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars – the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003.
On 30 December he sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.
Four days later he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau where he was told to sign a letter. In the letter he was accused of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order”.
He was one of eight people who police said were being investigated for “spreading rumours” Local authorities later apologised to Dr Li.
In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on 30 January.
A wave of anger and grief flooded Chinese social media site Weibo when news of Dr Li’s death broke late on Thursday.
The top two trending hashtags on the website were “Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology” and “We want freedom of speech”.
Both hashtags were quickly censored.
When the BBC searched Weibo on Friday morning, hundreds of thousands of comments had already been wiped.
Many have now taken to posting under the hashtag “Can you manage, do you understand?” – a reference to the letter Dr. Li was told to sign where he was accused of disturbing “social order”.
Only a handful of critical comments now remain – many of which do not directly name him – but are an indication of the mounting anger and distrust towards the Chinese government.
READ ALSO: Chinese Hospitals Discharge 1,153 Recovered Patients Of Coronavirus Infection
“Do not forget how you feel now. Do not forget this anger. We must not let this happen again,” said one comment on Weibo.
“The truth will always be treated as a rumour. How long are you going to lie? Are you still lying? What else do you have to hide?” another said.
China is introducing more restrictive measures to try to control the outbreak.
Beijing has banned group dining for events such as birthdays and weddings while cities such as Hangzhou and Nanchang are limiting how many family members can leave home each day.
Hubei province has switched off lifts in high-rise buildings to discourage residents from going outside.
Its capital, Wuhan, has a lack of beds and equipment, one senior city official said.
Despite the rapid construction of two hospitals, the volume of patients is causing severe strain.
Reports on social media say the Wuhan government is to carry out door-to-door temperature checks on residents.
Although the official figures in China are of 31,000 infections, some scientists have estimated that the actual rate could be 10 times higher, with the majority of infected people only presenting mild symptoms, not receiving treatment, yet passing on the potentially deadly disease.
The UK on Thursday confirmed a third case of the virus.
Some 3,700 people on the Diamond Princess cruise vessel moored off Japan face testing and quarantine for at least two weeks. On Friday, Japanese broadcaster NHK said 41 new cases had been detected on board, bringing the total to 61.
Another cruise ship with 3,600 passengers and crew is quarantined in Hong Kong with three cases on board.