Beijing gives first official comment on rising cases of strange child pneumonia

China has first addressed the issue of increasing "unusual" pneumonia cases among children, which medical experts have raised the alarm over this week.

As BBC reported, Beijing reported no "unusual or novel pathogens" in clusters of child pneumonia cases following a request by the World Health Organization to provide further information on the reported cases.

Beijing has attributed a rise in flu-like illnesses to the lifting of Covid curbs, said the WHO, which had requested for more data on the cases.

ProMed - a global outbreak surveillance system which was also a key player in recognizing COVID-19 from raging across the country - has documented "clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China" while local media have reported on hospitals being overwhelmed in recent days.

Responding to the WHO's request, state-run Xinhua news agency published an article in which it quoted officials of China's National Health Commission (NHC) as saying they were paying close attention to the diagnosis and care of children with respiratory illnesses.