A representative of the World Health Organisation stated that although there has been an increase in respiratory infections in China, it is not as high as it was prior to the COVID-19 epidemic and that no novel or uncommon viruses have been discovered in the latest cases.
The increase seems to be caused by an increase in the number of children catching diseases that they have avoided for the past two years due to COVID-19 limitations, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparation and Prevention.
“We inquired about parallels before the global health crisis. Additionally, the current waves’ peak is lower than that of the 2018–2019 waves, Van Kerkhove stated in an interview with STAT, a health news organisation, on Friday.
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This does not point to the presence of a new infection. This is anticipated. This was the situation that most nations faced a year or two ago,” she continued.
A representative for China’s National Health Commission, Mi Feng, stated on Sunday that the concurrent spread of multiple disease types, chief among them influenza, was responsible for the rise in acute respiratory infections.
Last week, the World Health Organisation requested additional information from China regarding the surge, citing a study on pediatric pneumonia cases that went undetected by the Programme for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.
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Regarding the transparency of reporting early in the pandemic, which began in the late 2019 outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, China, and the World Health Organisation have come under fire. No novel or uncommon infections have been discovered in the current cases, the WHO reported on Friday.
