BEIJING : China has warned its citizens living in Kazakhstan of a local "unknown pneumonia" which, it said, has a "much higher" fatality rate than the COVID-19 disease, prompting the Central Asian country to dismiss it as "fake news."The "unknown pneumonia in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone", the Chinese embassy in the central Asian country said in a statement on its WeChat platform on Thursday, adding that the fatalities also included Chinese citizens.However, Kazakhstan has dismissed as "fake news" the warning put out by the Chinese embassy.“The fatality rate of the disease is much higher than COVID-19," state-run Global Times quoted the embassy's statement on.