GP who died at Southend hospital in Essex ‘first doctor to die of coronavirus’

A family GP who died in hospital on Wednesday is believed to be the first British doctor to fall victim to coronavirus.

Dr Habib Zaidi, 76, became ill on Tuesday and died in intensive care at Southend Hospital in Essex on Wednesday. He had been self-isolating at home and had not seen patients in a week. 

His COVID-19 test results have not come back yet, but his daughter Dr Sarah Zaidi, who is also a GP, says he suffered all the ‘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. He had a vocational attitude to service.

‘He was treated as a definitive case. There is little clinical doubt it is coronavirus, the test result is academic.’

Dr Zaidi was a family doctor in Leigh-on-Sea for more than 45 years and a managing partner of Eastwood Group Practice with his wife, Dr Talat Zaidi, who has been forced into quarantine away from the rest of her family.  

He is survived by four children, who all work in the medical profession. 

The Zaidis’ son is a haematologist consultant in London and his daughters are a trainee surgeon, a dentist and a GP.   

Medics in other countries battling the virus have died, with scientists claiming it could have more deadly consequences the more people are exposed to it, putting frontline NHS staff at greater risk.

But if Dr Zaidi’s test results come back positive, he will become the first UK doctor to fall victim.    

Southend Council leader Ian Gilbert said he was ‘deeply saddened’ to hear of Dr Zaidi’s death and described him and his family as ‘well known and well loved within the community’.   

There have been 11,658 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, with 578 deaths.