A Chinese train attendant and medical worker gesture to each other, as the train prepares to depart for the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

AFP via Getty Images

Updated at 3:15 p.m. ET

More than 1,700 health workers in China have been infected with the new coronavirus, according to Chinese officials. Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the country’s National Health Commission, announced Friday that at least 1,716 health workers had confirmed cases — and that six have died from the disease now known as COVID-19.

“At present, the duties of medical workers at the front are indeed extremely heavy,” Zeng told a news conference, according to Reuters. “Their working and resting circumstances are limited, the psychological pressures are great, and the risk of infection is high.”

Those cases are among tens of thousands already reported in mainland China, which has…