The Chinese government has confirmed two cases of pneumonic plague in the capital of Beijing on Nov. 13.

The New York Times (NYT) reported that according to Beijing officials, two individuals from Inner Mongolia sought treatment at a hospital in the capital's Chaoyang District, where they were diagnosed.

Related to the "Black Death"

The pneumonic plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis.

This bacterium may also cause the septicemic and the bubonic plague. The latter is known as the "Black Death", which killed up to 100 million people in Europe in the 1300s.

However, according to the Guardian, unlike the Black Death, pneumonic plague can be spread from person to person by coughing.

According to the World Health Organisation, it has an incubation period of as little as 24 hours. It is fatal if not treated quickly, but recovery rates are high if detected fast.

China says there is no need to panic

But the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Weibo that the risk of further transmission was "extremely low".

It had taken steps to isolate the patients, disinfect the relevant locations, and conduct epidemiological investigations on people who may have been exposed to the disease.

As such, it said there was no need to panic.

State-owned news outlet China Daily repeated these sentiments, saying there was an extremely low risk of transmission.

The Chaoyang district government in Beijing recently reported two confirmed cases of plague, but the risk of the disease spreading further in the capital is extremely low and there is no need for panic.

— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) November 14, 2019

May have been detected earlier

However, NYT reported that the disease may have been detected as early as Nov. 3.

It cited a now-deleted post on WeChat by someone claiming to be a doctor at Chaoyang Hospital.

That post, which was published by CN-Healthcare, a website that publishes medical news in China, said that the patient she saw was a middle-aged man who had a fever and complained of breathing difficulties.

His wife also developed the same symptoms.

This same user said that the authorities may have needed more time to conduct investigations instead of announcing the diagnoses right away.

According to a directive seen by NYT:

"Chinese censors instructed online news aggregators in China to “block and control” online discussion related to news about the plague."

Previous cases

This is not the first time that China has grappled with a case of the plague.

Back in 2014, the BBC reported that a man in Yumen City, Gansu Province died of the bubonic plague.

He was believed to have contracted the disease after contact with a marmot, a large rodent which can act as a carrier of the disease.

In May 2019, a Mongolian couple died after contracting the bubonic plague, after eating a raw marmot.

Top image from Getty Images by Mark Ralston/AFP.