Foreign Minister Wang Yi Says China Can Control Respiratory Disease Cases

JAKARTA - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the recent increase in respiratory diseases in China is a common thing experienced by other countries, with the country's authorities being able to control the disease effectively.

"Recently we have seen a number of flu cases among children in certain areas of China. In fact, this is a very common phenomenon in many countries, and in China, it has been effectively controlled," said Foreign Minister Wang Yi who is currently chairing the UN DKI Session in New York, United States, reported by Reuters, November 30.

"China's interactions with the international community will not be affected by any factors, and we welcome more visits from friends from all over the world," added Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The World Health Organization (WHO) last week asked China to provide detailed information regarding the increase in respiratory diseases and reports of cluster pneumonia in children.

But a WHO official said on Monday that the disease spike in China was not as high as before the COVID-19 pandemic, and reiterated that no new or unusual pathogens had been found in recent cases.

"We asked about comparisons before the pandemic. And the wave that they're seeing now, the peak is not as high as what they saw in 2018-2019," Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told health news outlet STAT.

"This is not an indication of a new pathogen. This is to be expected. This is what most countries were dealing with a year or two ago," he added.

It is known that both WHO and China are facing questions about the transparency of reporting of early cases of COVID-19 that emerged in the city of Wuhan, central China at the end of 2019.