At a meeting room-turned memorial hall at a Wuhan hospital, doctors and nurses wrote down their memories of Peng Yinhua on three notebooks before rushing back to treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

Peng, a 29-year-old doctor at the First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District, was the latest medical worker, and among the youngest, who died from the virus on Thursday night, leaving behind his pregnant wife and a wedding yet to be held.

The respiratory doctor became infected while working to combat the novel coronavirus at the hospital. He was hospitalized on Jan. 25 and died at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital despite all-out efforts to save his life.

His colleagues remembered him as an honest, optimistic and hard-working young lad.

"I still remember the day when you were transferred to Jinyintan (Hospital), you still looked bright," read one comment on the notebook.

"He is diligent and motivated at work, fulfilling his job faithfully and never complaining about difficulties. He is very popular among us," said Chen Hao, ward director of the respiratory and critical care department where Peng had been working.

Chen said Peng tied the knot in November 2017 but the wedding was postponed to Feb. 1 this year as he was then attending a training course. The hospital had allowed him a holiday for the wedding but Peng offered to delay the big day to stand with other colleagues amid the raging epidemic.

"Patients swarmed in after our department was designated as an isolation ward. We treated 130 patients in one day, and all doctors ate and slept in the hospital," Chen said.

Peng developed symptoms including loss of appetite and low fever on Jan. 24, the eve of the Chinese New Year. The next day, his CT results showed evidence of infection.

"Even after being transferred to Jinyintan, Peng still expressed wishes that he could recover soon and return to the anti-virus front line," said Hu Fen, Party chief of the physician and pediatrician department at the First People's Hospital of Jiangxia District.

The local health bureau of the Jiangxia District has mourned the death of Peng and expressed condolences for his family. The hospital where he worked hailed him as a "heroic medic whose spirit will encourage others to carry on the fight."

"We told ourselves to hang on so that the day will come when together we will see the dawn of victory," reads one comment on the notebook.

Chinese health authorities have required local health agencies to promptly apply for the honor of martyr for deceased medical staff to the veteran's affairs authorities, comfort the families of the deceased and help solve their difficulties, as well as publicize stories of those who sacrificed their lives during the epidemic.

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