A Chinese government investigation found on March 19 that police in Wuhan, China acted "inappropriately" by punishing a doctor who had early on blew the whistle on the Covid-19 outbreak, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A group of Wuhan doctors, which included the late Li Wenliang, were reprimanded by police for sharing information on social media of a SARS-like virus spreading in the city in December 2019.

They were then made to sign a statement agreeing not to commit any more "law-breaking actions".

The virus, initially named "Wuhan virus" after the epicentre of the outbreak, later became known as Covid-19.

Li ended up dying of the virus in February.

His death prompted a national outpouring of grief, as well as anger at the government's handling of the crisis, and provoked rare demands for freedom of speech.

Colleagues resuscitated Li repeatedly

A central government investigation initiated after Li's death found that Wuhan police "acted inappropriately by issuing a disciplinary letter" and took "irregular law enforcement procedures".

The investigators also found that the 34-year-old doctor was repeatedly resuscitated by Li's colleagues before he was declared dead.

His colleagues said they tried their best because he was "very young", CCTV said.

Li's colleagues reportedly also told investigators, "as long as there was a bit of hope we were unwilling to give up, at the time there were no other factors".

Posthumous justice

The central government investigators has urged local police to revoke the disciplinary statement issued to Li, according to CCTV, as well as "suggest" that Wuhan authorities "supervise and rectify the matter".

Wuhan police later issued a statement saying that giving Li a disciplinary statement had been "wrong" and they "apologise to his family for the mistake".

The deputy director of the Zhongnan Road police station was given a "demerit" on his record.

The officer on duty was handed an "administrative warning".

It is rare for Chinese authorities to admit such wrongdoing.

But Beijing has sought to direct criticism over the mishandling of the virus outbreak onto provincial officials, with several of the region's top Communist Party and health officials sacked.

Rare spontaneous outpouring of grief in China

Li's death had initially been reported by state media but the reports were quickly deleted.

Wuhan Central Hospital only confirmed Li's death hours later, after saying he was undergoing emergency treatment.

Internet users in China immediately took to the Twitter-like Weibo platform to accuse hospital authorities of inappropriately attempting to resuscitate Li after he had already died.

Their posts to mourn Li were removed by censors initially, but were subsequently allowed to thrive as there was an avalanche of them that were organic and spontaneous.

The virus has now killed more than 9,000 worldwide.