One of Wuhan’s most senior doctors has died after contracting coronavirus, as authorities began a sweeping campaign inside the city to seek out patients infected with the deadly virus.

“Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang hospital, died at 10.30am this morning after resuscitation efforts failed,” reported the China Central Television’s microblog.

Confirmation also emerged of the death of Xu Depu, the former director of the Ezhou city Chinese medicine hospital in Hubei province, from the virus on Thursday last week. A nurse at the hospital on Tuesday confirmed his death, as reported in Red Star news, an outlet under state newspaper Chengdu Commercial Daily.

The deaths came as state media reported new house-to-house checks in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people at the centre of the outbreak, that aimed to seek out and “round up” all infected patients. State media said anyone suspected of having the virus would face mandatory testing and anyone who had close contact with virus patients would be put under quarantine.

According to Chutian Daily, a Wuhan newspaper, 10 quarantine centres similar to the makeshift Fangcang hospital will be set up across eight districts in the city, providing over an additional 11,400 beds for people showing mild symptoms. Buildings in factories, industrial estates and transport centres were being converted into make shift centres for housing patients.

The reports said all communities and villages would be placed under around-the-clock “closed-off” management, in effect putting them under lockdowns. From Tuesday, anyone who buys cough medicine or treatments to bring down a fever in chemists or online will need to use their ID card, state-funded site The Paper reported.

The citywide inspection campaign indicates an escalation of the situation in Wuhan, where former officials have been blamed for a cover-up that led to the rapid spread of the virus. Health officials have reported nearly 50,000 confirmed cases in Hubei alone.

The draconian measures come after two of the city’s top leaders were sacked last week. Wuhan’s new Communist party chief, Wang Zhonglin, issued the new decree, according to the Global Times, an English-language state newspaper.

BBC