At least 13 children died from a disease similar in symptoms to pneumonia northeastern Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported on Thursday referring to a representative of local authorities.

According to the source, at least 13 adolescents have died in the last three days from a pneumonia-like illness.

No information has yet been received from the Afghan authorities on the cause of the illness and death of Afghan children in Yamgan, TASS reported.

The Chinese authorities at the end of December 2019 recorded an outbreak of pneumonia caused by the 2019-nCoV virus in the large city of Wuhan.

The disease was recorded in 24 states, including Russia. The World Health Organization recognized the outbreak as an emergency of international proportions and described it as an epidemic with many foci. According to recent data, the number of virus infections in China exceeds 28 thousand, over 560 people died from the disease, more than 1.1 thousand recovered