CHINA is bringing back masks and social distance in an echoing lockdown to combat a mysterious pneumonia outbreak, four years after Covid.

As fears spread across the world, alarming video footage of mask-wearing people in Chinese hospitals has been released.

Last week, reports emerged that hospitals in areas such as Beijing and Liaoning were overflowing with sick children.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that has been circulating since May, now shows ground glass opacity on lung scans as an indicator of severe respiratory illness.

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Many parents are worried about this condition, also known as the “white lung syndrome”. They have to wait a minimum of a day for an emergency treatment.

China insists that the flu and other winter bugs, not a new virus is to blame for this latest outbreak. It can handle the increase in sickness.

The local authorities are being urged to promote vaccination among the elderly and children, and open more fever clinics.

Mi Feng, the ministry’s spokesman, said that efforts should be made to expand the hours of service and the availability of medicine.

He also advised wearing masks, and urged local authorities to concentrate on preventing illness spread in crowded areas such as schools and nursing home.

His statement follows a report by CCTV, the state-run media outlet in Beijing, that a Beijing Children’s Hospital was admitting at least 7,000 new patients daily. This is exceeding its capacity.

The largest pediatric hospital in Tianjin, which is nearby, reportedly received more than 13,000 kids through its doors.

As the country enters its first winter since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in December, it is concerning to see how widespread this illness has become.

Professor Francois Baloux from the UCL Genetics Institute has blamed China’s strict lockdown for the “exit waves” that are sweeping the country.

China has seen a larger increase in RSV and influenza infections after the pandemic regulations were lifted.

Last week, the situation escalated when the World Health Organisation was forced to make a rare public statement and ask Beijing for more information on the outbreaks.

However, the WHO stated that no unusual or novel pathogens were detected in the data provided by China.

Both China and the WHO were accused of not being transparent in their first reports on the Covid Pandemic.

The first Covid-19 cases detected in Wuhan, central China in late 2019 are almost four years old.

Commentators have pointed out that the recent wave of illness was strikingly similar to reports which emerged shortly before Covid. China was accused of concealing the report.

The UK Health Security Agency has already stated that we should keep an open mind about the cause of mystery pneumonia.

According to reports from China, the health authorities asked parents to bring their children to clinics or other facilities if they had less severe symptoms.

WHO, however, says that there are currently insufficient data to assess the risks of the reported cases of respiratory illnesses among children.