Unknown Pneumonia More Deadlier than COVID-19

The Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan has issued a warning about unknown pneumonia sweeping through the central Asian country after more than 600 people died of pneumonia in June.

The Chinese embassy in an advisory issued for its citizens living in the former Soviet Bloc country said the new disease has a fatality rate "much higher" than Covid-19.

Kazakhstan borders northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The embassy in a statement on its WeChat platform said, "The "unknown pneumonia" in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone, including Chinese citizens."

"The fatality rate of the disease is much higher than Covid-19," read the embassy's statement.

 "The Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan reminds Chinese nationals here to be aware of the situation and step up prevention to lower the infection risks," the embassy statement said.

According to Chinese state media, Kazakhstan's healthcare minister said on Wednesday that the number of patients sickened by the pneumonia is two to three times more than those who have been infected with Covid-19.

Saule Kisikova, the health care department chief in the capital Nur-Sultan, told the news agency Kazinform: "Some 300 people diagnosed with pneumonia are being hospitalised every day."

The Kazakhstan's foreign ministry had summoned the Chinese ambassador in April to protest over an article on a Chinese website saying the country was keen to become part of China, the ministry said.

It was a rare move as the two countries avoid criticising each other.

It was during a lecture at a university in Kazakhstan that President Xi Jinping had first talked about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), his ambitious inter-continental connectivity project, in 2013.