BEIJING: A doctor at a hospital in China’s Hubei province, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, has died from the virus, China Global Television Network reported in a tweet.

Liang Wudong, a doctor at Hubei Xinhua Hospital who had been at the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan city, died from the virus aged 62, it said.

Liang was suspected of being infected last week, before he was transferred to Wuhan’s Jinyintan Hospital for treatment.

Previously, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said on Tuesday that 15 medical workers were confirmed as contracting the virus, with one suspected case. One of them is critically ill.

Deaths from the novel coronavirus rose to 41 on the Chinese mainland as of Friday midnight, with 1,287 confirmed cases, according to the National Health Commission.

All 41 deaths have been in China, including 39 in the Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, one in Hebei and one in Heilongjiang.

The virus has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal, France, the US, Australia, and Malaysia.

Australia announced its first case of the virus on Saturday – a Chinese man in his 50s who returned from China last week.

He had been in Wuhan and arrived from China on 19 January on a flight from Guangzhou. He is in a stable condition in hospital.

(with inputs from Agencies)