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<\/p>\nCHINA has brought back masks and social distancing in a chilling echo of lockdown as they battle a mystery pneumonia outbreak four years on from Covid.<\/p>\n
Alarming footage has emerged of mask-wearing crowds inside Chinese hospitals as fears of a new pandemic sweep across the globe.<\/p>\n
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Areas in the north of the country such as Beijing and Liaoning have been hit the hardest, with reports emerging last week that hospitals are being overwhelmed with sick children.<\/p>\n
A common bacterial infection called mycoplasma pneumoniae has circulated since May but is now showing ground glass opacity in lung scans – an indicator of severe respiratory illness.<\/p>\n
Also known as "white lung syndrome", many parents are deeply worried and are having to wait at least a day just for emergency care.<\/p>\n
But China continues to insist that flu and the usual winter bugs are to blame for the latest outbreak, rather than a new virus, and can cope with the spike in sickness.<\/p>\n
Local authorities, however, are already being called upon to open more fever clinics and promote vaccine uptake among children and the elderly.<\/p>\n "Efforts should be made to increase the opening of relevant clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines," said ministry spokesman Mi Feng.<\/p>\n He also advised people to wear masks and called on local authorities to focus on preventing the spread of illnesses in crowded places such as schools and nursing homes.<\/p>\n But his statement comes after a Beijing children's hospital told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted daily to the institution, exceeding capacity.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n It followed up the largest paediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin reportedly receiving more than 13,000 children through its doors.<\/p>\n The concerning spread of illness comes as the nation enters its first full winter season since lifting strict COVID-19 restrictions last December.<\/p>\n Professor Francois Balloux, from the UCL Genetics Institute, has "blamed" China's strict lockdown for the "exit wave" sweeping across the country.<\/p>\n While the\u00a0US\u00a0and\u00a0UK\u00a0also saw spikes in infections like RSV and flu after\u00a0pandemic\u00a0rules were lifted, China's have been on a slightly bigger scale.<\/p>\n Things escalated further last week when the World Health Organisation (WHO) were forced into a rare public intervention, formally requesting further information from Beijing on the infections.<\/p>\n The WHO said no unusual or novel pathogens had been detected in data provided by China, however.<\/p>\n But both China and the WHO have been accused of a lack of transparency in their initial reports on the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n It's almost exactly four years to the date when the first Covid-19 cases were detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in the latter months of 2019.<\/p>\n And commentators have already highlighted how the wave of sickness was eerily similar to the reports that emerged just prior to Covid, which China was accused of covering up.<\/p>\n The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have already said we must\u00a0keep an "open mind"\u00a0about the cause of the mystery\u00a0pneumonia.<\/p>\n According to internal accounts in China, health authorities have asked the public to take children with less severe symptoms to clinics and other facilities.<\/p>\n At the moment, though, WHO says there is too little information to properly assess the risk of these reported cases of respiratory illness in children.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.thesun.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/sick-woman-flu-cold-fever-760921788.jpg\")
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