(BGR.COM) – With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic still raging across the globe, the last thing we need is another new virus that is even more deadly. Unfortunately, that’s what recently popped up in Kazakhstan, at least according to Chinese health officials. The initial reports sounded pretty dire, with the new “unknown pneumonia” carrying a higher fatality rate than COVID-19, and cases piling up rapidly.
It was very, very bad news. That is until Kazakhstan officials decided to chime in on the reports and essentially denied the entire thing. China hasn’t backed down on its initial claims and insists that its neighbor is dealing with something very serious.
Kazakhstan went into lockdown in mid-March over the coronavirus pandemic. It enacted many of the same restrictions we’ve seen worldwide, and cases of COVID-19 began to trend downward. The country made the decision to “reopen,” or lift many of the lockdown restrictions in early May. Recently, the infection rate has begun to trend upward once again.
The country recently had its most reported infections in a single day. Roughly two weeks ago, officials reported nearly 2,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, which is a record for the country. The government has called this the “second wave,” and it’s similar to what many other countries, including the United States, are currently battling, but whether there is a new virus running rampant in the country is still unclear.
