The widow of Li Wenliang, the whistleblower doctor who first warned China about the novel Coronavirus and died of the infection in February, has delivered their second child.
Fu Xuejie was pregnant when Li succumbed to the deadly virus. She shared the news on Chinese messenger app WeChat while calling the baby boy as the “final gift” from her late husband.
“Can you see it from heaven? The last gift you gave me was born today. I will definitely take good care of them,” Xuejie said while sharing the image of the newly born on social media.
34-year-old Li was one of the first eight people who warned other doctors about the novel coronavirus but they were arrested by the police for spreading rumours in January. He was ophthalmologist, working at the Wuhan central hospital and was trying to alert people about the pandemic which was first identified in late 2019. The police forced him to sign a confession letter promising that he wouldn’t repeat this.
After coming out of jail he resumed duty in the hospital and caught the virus while treating patients and died in February after his condition deteriorated due to COVID-19.
His death sparked nationwide anger and allegations of a cover-up leading to the Wuhan Police retracting the letter they initially wrote charging Dr Li with “making false comments” and “disturbing the social order”. They also apologised to Dr Li’s family, the BBC reported, citing Chinese media.
On April 4, China had observed a national day of mourning for martyrs, including Li, who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the Coronavirus outbreak.
During the commemoration, national flags flew at half-mast across the country and in all Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and public recreational activities remained suspended across the country.
Chinese people had observes a three- minute silence to mourn the deceased, while air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships “wailed in grief”.
China had identified fourteen frontline workers as martyrs of the pandemic.
Earlier, the Chinese study into the origin of the COVID-19 virus has suggested that the virus, which caused havoc on the globe, had its origin in the famous Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
While in May, Chinese scientists came up with an absolutely new theory that the COVID-19 virus may not have its origin in the Wuhan seafood market, while revealing that new evidence suggests “multiple origins of the transmission of the virus”.