Just when you think you can’t get enough of coronavirus, a new ‘unknown pneumonia’ more deadly than COVID-19 is brewing in Asia. According to Chinese officials, the mysterious pneumonia is understood to have broken out in Kazakhstan.
The Chinese embassy warns in a statement that death rate is ‘much higher’ than coronavirus and says local authorities have yet to identify cause. Kazakh authorities have reimposed Covid-19 lockdown in some parts of the country amid a spike in pneumonia cases last month.
Between June 29 and July 5 alone, Kazakhstan had recorded more than 32,000 cases of pneumonia and 451 deaths from the illness, Kazakhstan’s Health Ministry said. The Chinese embassy, which quoted local media reports, said Atyrau and Aktobe counties as well as Skymkent city had seen a spike in cases of the illness since mid-June.
“The death rate of this disease is much higher than the novel coronavirus. The country’s health departments are conducting comparative research into the pneumonia virus, but have yet to identify the virus,” the embassy said in a warning to Chinese citizens in the country.
The embassy said the central Asian nation had 1,772 deaths in the first half of the year, including 628 las month – some of whom were Chinese nationals. It then described the sickness as an “unknown pneumonia” even though officials in Kazakhstan did not say whether there was anything unusual about it.
“The country’s health departments are conducting comparative research into the pneumonia virus, but have yet to identify the virus.” Diplomats urged Chinese nationals to take the same precautions as with Covid-19.
While the Chinese embassy described the illness as an “unknown pneumonia”, Kazakhstani officials and media have only said it is pneumonia.
