The Kazakh Ministry of Health on Friday firmly rejected recent media reports that claimed an unknown, deadly pneumonia far more fatal than that caused by the novel coronavirus was ravaging the Central Asian country.

The ministry explained in a statement that a spike in reported pneumonia cases was the result of a misunderstanding of its classification of instances in which patients had COVID-19 symptoms, but the illness was not confirmed with a laboratory test.

Symptoms of the novel coronavirus include experiencing difficulty breathing, fatigue, body aches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat and nausea, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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