The recent rise in respiratory diseases in China is a common problem for all countries and Chinese authorities are effectively controlling it, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday, AFP reported.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked China to provide detailed information on the rise in respiratory diseases and reported a very high number of cases of pneumonia in children.

But a WHO official said on Monday that the rise in the number of illnesses in China was not as great as before the COVID-19 pandemic, and reiterated that no new or unusual pathogens had been identified in recent cases.

“Recently, we have seen several clusters of influenza cases among children in some parts of China. In fact, it is a very common phenomenon in many countries and in China, which has actually been brought under control,” Wang told reporters at the United Nations.

“No factor will affect China’s interaction with the international community, and we welcome more visits from friends around the world,” he said.

Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the first cases of COVID-19, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.