Chinese scientist Ping Liu, who was conducting advanced research on the emerging corona virus, was shot dead at his home in Pittsburgh, USA, and the police said his death was the result of a row over an emotional relationship.
Local authorities said that Ping, 37, was killed last weekend in his apartment by a person who later committed suicide in his car.
Police said the accident occurred as a result of a dispute between the murderer called "Howe Go" (47 years) and his victim over an "intimate partner", stressing that there is no evidence that the murder of the researcher at the University of Pittsburgh is linked to his research.
The University of Pittsburgh affirmed in a statement that Ping Liu "was about to achieve very important results for understanding the underlying cellular mechanisms of SARS-Cove-2 infection and the cellular basis for the complications that follow."
Although the authorities assert that what happened was a purely criminal act, the conspiracy theory that the Chinese scientist was killed because of his work in studying the virus was circulated on the social media, while others considered that he was killed on the orders of the Chinese government, and demanded to investigate the incident. .
In Britain, the British government's scientific advisor Neil Ferguson resigned after admitting that he had violated the isolation measures in place to counter the outbreak of the Corona virus due to an emotional relationship.
Ferguson admitted that he had erred in estimating when he allowed a woman who was presented as his "mistress" to visit him in London at least twice during the isolation period, on March 30 and April 8, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The resigned British official expressed his regret for violating the government's directives on social estrangement to limit the spread of the Coronavirus.