With the entire world still dealing with the coronavirus epidemic, the recent news is not something we wanted to hear. According to officials in China, there has been an outbreak of a new and even deadlier virus than the current coronavirus.
The outbreak is reportedly in the country of Kazakhstan, which neighbors China. The initial details are pretty dismal sounding, with the virus being called a “new pneumonia” and reportedly producing a much higher fatality rate than that of COVID-19. And it is being said that cases and casualties are quickly piling up.
Officials from Kazakhstan deny any existence of any new virus, although they are experiencing a considerable spike in their cases of COVID-19. Some feel that taking China’s word on the possible virus could be a mistake, as their handling of the news at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak was more than a little sketchy. However, one has to wonder why the country is making claims in the first place.
Even though Kazakhstan is standing behind their claims of no new virus, China does not appear to be backing down on its own claims. The Chinese government insists that the neighboring country is dealing with something that seems to be extremely serious.
In mid-March, much like the US and other countries, Kazakhstan mandated a countrywide lockdown to stem the coronavirus spread. After enacting many of the restrictions that other countries used worldwide, their cases of COVID-19 seemed to be trending downward. In early May, officials decided to lift the lockdown and “reopen” the country. As a result, Kazakhstan is now seeing an upward trend in cases of COVID-19 once again.
A recent significant spike in pneumonia cases in the country is what many assume is why China sounded an alarm. Before coronavirus was isolated and given its official name of COVID-19, it was considered an unidentified pneumonia. That is why many see it as extremely odd that China would claim that a new and more deadly virus is in play.
Then again, it may be a ploy for China to draw attention away from how poorly they handled the initial coronavirus outbreak in their country. It has been a month since China has made the claims, and other than a spike in COVID-19 cases, no further details have come out of Kazakhstan. It seems this even deadlier virus is taking its sweet time to show itself.
Do you think that Chinas claims of a deadlier virus are on the up and up?