A Chinese doctor who issued an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak before it was officially recognized died of the virus on Friday, triggering a wave of public mourning and rare expressions of anger towards the government online.

Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the outbreak, became one of the most visible figures in the crisis after he publicly revealed that he was one of eight people reprimanded by Wuhan police last month for "spreading rumors" about the coronavirus.

News of Li's death became the top-read topic on China's microblogging site Weibo overnight on Friday, with over 1.5 billion views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness.