North Korea recorded 15 more deaths from its “fever” on Sunday, three days after the country declared its first outbreak of covid-19, the official KCNA news agency reported.

According to the KCNA, 42 people have died so far, 820,620 cases of fever have been reported, and at least 324,550 people are receiving medical treatment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Saturday that the epidemic had caused “major turmoil” in the country.

KCNA stated that “all provinces, provinces and districts in the country have been completely closed, business, production and residence units are isolated from each other.”

Despite activating a “maximum emergency quarantine system” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among its unvaccinated population, North Korea is recording a large number of daily infections.

On Thursday, the isolated communist regime said it had detected infection with the BA.2 sub-variant of the virus in several febrile patients and ordered a nationwide quarantine.

These were the first cases officially confirmed by Pyongyang, which in early 2020 imposed a lockdown with the outside world, sinking its economy and trade.

Experts say that North Korea has a poor health system without Covid-19 vaccines, antiviral drugs or large testing capacity.