'Fake news': Kazakhstan shuns China's warning about 'unknown pneumonia' worse than COVID

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Healthcare on July 10 officially dismissed a report of the Chinese Embassy about an 'unknown pneumonia' spreading in the Central Asian country as incorrect. "The Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan emphasizes that the reports of the Chinese media is not consistent with relity', said a press release by the health ministry of Kazakhstan on Friday.

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"It is important to note that WHO introduced pneumonia codes into the International Classification of Diseases - ICD 10, in cases when COVID-19 is diagnosed clinically or epidemiologically, for example with the 'ground-glass' opacities in the affected lungs, but is not laboratory-confirmed. In this regard, Kazakhstan, like other countries of the world, keeps records and monitoring of this kind of pneumonia, in order to make timely managerial decisions aimed at stabilizing the incidence and prevalence of COVID-19," the release added further.

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Chinese embassy warns citizens

The Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan posted a notice on July 9 warning its citizens in the country about a new 'unknown pneumonia', possibly more lethal than COVID-19. Chinese Embassy in its notice claimed that the death rate of the new disease was much higher than that of coronavirus. The embassy said that Kazakhstan's health ministry is yet to identify the virus that has reportedly claimed more than 1,700 lives in the central Asian country. It further added that the health ministry of the former Soviet-Union is conducting research on the virus. 

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The Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan cited local media reports and claimed that the unknown pneumonia cases are being reported in the provinces of Atyrau and Aktobe and the city of Shymkent. The embassy notice claimed that the cases have seen a significant surge since mid-June and the three places have reported over 500 cases so far. The embassy in its notice further said that some Chinese nationals have also been infected and died by unknown pneumonia. 

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