Kazakhstan denies Chinese reports of 'unknown pneumonia' deadlier than coronavirus

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Kazakhstan, on July 10, dismissed Chinese reports of 'unknown pneumonia' deadlier than the novel coronavirus.

China has warned its citizens living in Kazakhstan of a local "unknown pneumonia" which, it said, has a "much higher" fatality rate than COVID-19.

The "unknown pneumonia in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone", the Chinese embassy in the central Asian country said in a statement on its WeChat platform on July 9, adding that the fatalities also included Chinese citizens.

“The fatality rate of the disease is much higher than COVID-19," state-run Global Times quoted the embassy's statement on July 10.

Many organisations including Kazakhstan's health department are studying the "virus of this pneumonia", the embassy said.

There has not been any indication whether this disease is related to the COVID-19.

Some Chinese experts said that measures should be taken to prevent the pneumonia from spreading into China. Kazakhstan borders China's northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

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Kazakhstan rejects Chinese claims

Kazakhstan's healthcare ministry branded Chinese media reports based on the embassy statement as "fake news". The ministry said its tallies of bacterial, fungal and  viral pneumonia infections, which also included cases of unclear causes, were in line with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

"The information published by some Chinese media regarding a new kind of pneumonia in Kazakhstan is incorrect," the ministry said.

Kazakhstan, which imposed a second lockdown this week to rein in the pandemic, has a tally of almost 55,000 COVID-19 infections, including 264 deaths. The number of new cases rose on Thursday to a daily record of 1,962.

On July 7, state news agency Kazinform had said the number of pneumonia cases "increased 2.2 times in June as compared to the same period of 2019".

(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)

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