[OUTLINE] A BRAVE surgeon who treated coronavirus patients has become the 41st victim of the outbreak - with 56 million people now on lockdown.Dr Liang Wudong, 62, passed away today after becoming struck down with the deadly virus on January 16. The surgeon had treated patients at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine before being transferred to the Jinyintan Hospital two days later.
Dr Wudong, who retired from the profession last June, had complained of feeling flustered with a tight chest when he was put in quarantine. The medic had a history of heart disease and coronary heart disease and had been working at the front line of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan city.
Wuhan is the city where cases of coronavirus were first reported before the outbreak spread across the world.
Dr Wudong is the 41st person to die from the disease with more than 1,200 cases reported in China alone.
Vietnam, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong all now have confirmed cases — alongside the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
France yesterday confirmed three cases and Australia one - with all patients returning from Wuhan.
So far, 14 people in the UK have been tested for coronavirus, with five given the all-clear and nine still awaiting results. But experts have now warned Britain is on the brink of an epidemic - with more than 30 people tested for the killer illness.
Professor Neil Ferguson, an expert at Imperial College London, said the new strain is currently "as deadly as the Spanish flu epidemic".
The 1918 outbreak is the most severe pandemic in recent history, wiping out an estimated 50 million people across the world.