The show is anchored by Palki Sharma, Managing Editor, Firstpost.

It's happening again. China's hospitals are filling up with patients. Almost all of them are children. Their symptoms are strikingly similar to the Wuhan virus. High fever and lung infection. There are many clusters of patients. Doctors say they have pneumonia. But they don't know what's causing the infection. They have failed to figure out the root cause. Is this a new variant of the Wuhan virus? Is it a bacterium or a new disease altogether? As always, China is not being transparent. And I know what you're thinking. This is a repeat of 2019. It sounds like one. When mysterious disease was ripping through China. First Beijing played down the outbreak. Then they concealed the truth. And the result was a global pandemic. The worst of our times. Four years later, we have a new outbreak in China. One that Beijing cannot explain. So what really is happening? There is limited information as of now. We don't know exactly when the outbreak began. Or how many patients are in hospital. But we can tell you that the hotspot is northern China. The surge seems recent. Also unexpected. Some reports say hospitals are overwhelmed and schools on the verge of a shutdown. Obviously because this is affecting children. So parents in China are worried. In one instance, they were heard asking authorities if they're covering up another outbreak. So not just the rest of the world, even the people of China do not trust their government. And clearly they were not ready for this. Also there is something strange about this outbreak. The fact that it's hitting only children. Not many adults are showing these symptoms. The number of infected children though is quite high. Meanwhile a new report is doing the rounds. It comes from a platform called ProMed. Now ProMed is basically a surveillance system built by the International Society for Infectious Diseases. And what does ProMed do? It monitors disease outbreaks the world over. This is where a lot of doctors first learned about the Wuhan virus. ProMed had carried reports of the first cases in 2019. And now it is focusing on the new outbreak in China. And here is what it says. It has called the disease an undiagnosed pneumonia. That's what experts are also calling it. An undiagnosed pneumonia. The report also features some quotes from locals. One of them is from Beijing. From inside a children's hospital. This is what a local resident in Beijing said. And I'm quoting. Many, many are hospitalized. They don't cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature or fever and many develop pulmonary nodules. Now you're not allowed to report to school. If you have any symptoms such as fever, cold, cough and then you're hospitalized, you can ask for leave. Then there are more ground reports. The second one is from the Liaoning province. Again, this is from a children's hospital. It's called the Dalian Children's Hospital. The situation here is quite bad. Locals say the hospital lobby is full of sick children. They're receiving intravenous or IV drips. Children are receiving IV drips in the hospital lobby. I have a quote from a hospital staffer. This is what he says. Patients have to wait in line for two hours and we are all in the emergency department and there are no general outpatient clinics. So the outbreak is large and serious. Some videos are spreading on Chinese social media. We've not been able to verify these but they are quite shocking. It appears children are doing their classes from hospitals. Take a look at this. These are scary pictures. It's the worst sight for any parent. Their child on a drip doing schoolwork. So what are Chinese authorities doing? Last week they held a press conference. They were officials from China's National Health Commission. And did they have any answers? I'm afraid not. They sounded clueless. They said this surge in cases is linked to pandemic restrictions. What does that mean? Let me explain. During the pandemic, China followed something called a zero COVID policy. It was a totalitarian approach. There were mass lockdowns. Everyone had to undergo a test and patients were treated like criminals. They were picked up from their homes sometimes by force and they were locked up in quarantine centres. It did not work. Instead of achieving zero COVID, China was killing its economy. So in the month of January this year, they abandoned the policy. This was more than 10 months back. And now Chinese experts say it led to what they are calling an immunity gap. Meaning people who don't have a strong immune system are falling sick. Children's immune systems are not well developed. Specific and non-specific immunity functions are not very matured, including our children's relatively weak cough reflex, insufficient function of respiratory motile cilia, low levels of immunoglobulin of our children, which may all easily cause infection. But what is their sickness? Which disease is this that is exclusively targeting children? Chinese officials have given a range of possibilities. It could be the Wuhan virus, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, or a disease called mycoplasma pneumoniae. This is a common bacterial infection. It affects younger children. And China says all these diseases are in circulation right now, so it could be any of these. But they cannot say for sure what's driving the current outbreak. Now the World Health Organization wants answers. They've asked China to share more data, including patient lab tests. Not sure if that will be enough, especially given the WHO's track record and how they handled China with kid gloves three years back. Three years have passed. We still don't know what happened in Wuhan. And now there's a new outbreak in China. The WHO is offering us more of the same. A statement of concern and a recommendation to wear masks again. It's a textbook example of the famous saying, the more things change, the more they remain the same. We can only hope that this is not one more pandemic in the making.