Kazakhstan is pushing back after China reported it was grappling with an outbreak of “unknown pneumonia” different from COVID-19 that has killed hundreds.
China warned its citizens in Kazakhstan on Thursday about the supposed mystery illness and alleged it had killed more than 1,700 people.
“Kazakhstani Health Department and other agencies are conducting comparative research and have not defined the nature of the pneumonia virus,” the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan said in a statement, according to CNN. The embassy said that new infections of the illness have been increasing since the middle of last month and that the regions of Atyrau, Aktobe, and Shymkent were particularly affected.
“This disease is much deadlier than COVID-19,” the embassy said.
“In response to these reports, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan officially declares that this information does not correspond to reality,” a statement from the Kazakhstan Health Ministry said about the claims. The statement added that there have been “viral pneumonias of unspecified etiology.”
The ministry explained that the “unspecified” classification comes after World Health Organization guidelines “for the registration of pneumonia when the coronavirus infection is diagnosed clinically or epidemiologically but is not confirmed by laboratory testing.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed the reports about the “unknown” pneumonia on Friday, telling reporters, “We would also like to get more information. China hopes to work together with Kazakhstan to fight the epidemic and to safeguard the two countries’ public health security.”
Health Minister Aleksey Tsoy addressed the number of overall pneumonia cases in Kazakhstan during a Thursday briefing, according to the ministry. He said cases increased 300% across the country in June compared with last year, and deaths tied to those cases rose 129% since 2019.
