The alert
comes as the Kazakh authorities admitted both a ‘second wave’ spike in Covid-19
but also a sharp rise in pneumonia cases.
China has
raised an alarm over a mystery pneumonia, deadlier than COVID-19, rocking
neighbours Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh
health ministry insisted on Friday the Chinese pneumonia claim was ‘not true’
despite an apparent surge in cases not confirmed as coronavirus.
And the
ex-Soviet state has gone back into lockdown with the president issuing a ‘don’t
panic’ message while also demanding strict adherence to lockdown rules.
Kazakhstan’s
Health Ministry said it has recorded more than 32,000 cases of pneumonia
between June 29 and July 5 alone, along with 451 deaths.
By comparison,
the official number of coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan stands at 53,021, with
296 confirmed deaths from the disease.
Some 28,000
pneumonia patients with negative coronavirus tests are hospitalised in
Kazakhstan, deputy health minister Azhar Giniyat said.
The Chinese
embassy stated that Kazakhstan saw 1,772 pneumonia deaths in the first half of
the year, including 628 in June, some of whom were Chinese nationals.
One of the
pneumonia dead is chief sanitary doctor of Almaty region Kairat Baimukhambetov,
64, who had been a key figure in the country’s battle against the coronavirus
pandemic, it was confirmed on Friday.
China, which
borders the country, has expressed deep concern over the ‘unknown pnuemonia’
and issued a warning from its embassy in the Kazakh capital Nursultan.
It alleged:
‘The death rate of this disease is much higher than the novel coronavirus.
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