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GP feared to be first doctor to die after contracting virus

A GP is feared to have become the first doctor in the UK to have died after contracting coronavirus.

Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, died at Southend Hospital in Essex 24 hours after being taken ill on Tuesday, the BBC has reported.

Tests have not yet confirmed that he died of Covid-19 but his daughter, Dr Sarah Zaidi, also a GP, said he showed “textbook symptoms” of the virus.

She told the BBC: “For that to be the thing that took him is too much to bear.

“It is reflective of his sacrifice.”

Dr Zaidi, who worked as a GP in Leigh-on-Sea, had reportedly been self-isolating and not seen patients in person for about a week.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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