Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, has succumbed to Covid-19, according to media reports.

Quoting state television, Reuters said he died at 10.30am this morning.

Liu, 50, is said to be a leading figure in the field of neurosurgery.

He was the seventh health worker to fall victim. The hospital, located in the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, was designated to solely treat virus-infected patients.

Last week, Chinese authorities revealed as of Feb 11, a total of 1,716 healthcare officers had tested positive for Covid-19.

Another doctor who had died from the disease was Li Wenliang, a 34-year old ophthalmologist at the Wuhan Central Hospital.

Li had been hailed as a hero by netizens in China after he revealed he had tried to warn colleagues of a disease resembling the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) that was spreading in Wuhan in late December.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the number of new coronavirus cases in mainland China fell below 2,000 today for the first time since January but the virus remains far from contained.

The rapidly spreading virus claimed another 98 lives in mainland China as of Feb 17, bringing the total death toll there to 1,868, the National Health Commission said. There were 1,886 new confirmed infections for a total of 72,436.

The number of new daily infections in mainland China had not been below 2,000 since Jan. 30, while the daily death toll had not come under 100 since Feb. 11.

Chinese authorities believe that the stabilisation in the number of new cases is a sign that measures they have taken to halt the spread of the disease are having an effect.

Global health authorities had to remain on guard against a wider outbreak, said Jimmy Whitworth, professor of International Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"We can hope that the reports of falling numbers of new cases in China does show that the epidemic has peaked in Hubei province, but it is still too early to be sure that this is so," he said.

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Chinese data "appear to show a decline in new cases" but any apparent trend "must be interpreted very cautiously."