The director of a hospital in China's Hubei province has died from Covid-19, according to Chinese media reports.
Liu Zhiming was the head of Wuchang Hospital, which is on the frontline of the battle against Covid-19 in the outbreak's epicentre, Wuhan.
According to CGTN , Dr Liu died today at 10.30am local time.
The news comes as Chinese media also announced the World Health Organisation's expert team in China is not visiting the Covid-19 outbreak epicentre in Hubei province.
Global Times reports the expert team - including American experts - has arrived in Beijing and will visit South China's Guangdong Province and Southwest China's Sichuan Province to study the nation's "prevention and control work on the novel coronavirus".
The Chinese media outlet says China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the announcement yesterday and the team has already started their research.
"The epidemic-stricken Hubei is not included in the international expert team's destinations, which, according to experts, is because the province is at a vital time combating the epidemic, and cannot spare time and people to receive the experts," Global Times writes.
1 NEWS has contacted the World Health Organisation for comment.
The news comes as the organisation's relationship with China has been called into question by some news outlets - including CNN - after being quick to praise China over its containment efforts despite the nation's troubled past when it comes to transparency.
The official number of reported cases in China outside of Huebi province dropped to 79 in today's latest figures as that number declined for the 14th straight day.
There have been over 1800 deaths and just over 73,000 cases worldwide from Covid-19.
So far, there have been no cases in New Zealand.
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