North Korea announced its first death from COVID-19 on Friday. Authorities said more than 187,000 people with fever had been “isolated and treated” and the virus had spread “across the country”.
The official KCNA news agency claimed that Kim Jong-un visited the National Epidemic Prevention Headquarters and found out about the spread of COVID-19 across the country.
A fever of unknown cause has spread explosively across the country from the end of Aprilhe says.
Six victims of fever died in the country and one of them tested positive for Omicron subvariant BA.2, the news agency said.
The reclusive country reported the first cases of COVID-19 on Thursday and said it was in this mode maximum emergency epidemic prevention.
As of May 12 alone, approximately 18,000 people developed a fever nationwide, and 187,800 people are currently isolated and receiving treatment.according to the same source.
Less than 25 million of the country’s population has been vaccinated against the coronavirus, with Pyongyang rejecting vaccination offers from the World Health Organization, China and Russia.
Kim Jong-un led an emergency political bureau meeting on the epidemic situation on Thursday and ordered prevention measures to try to stop the spread of the virus.
This is the most important challenge and the most important task that our party must face in order to quickly reverse this situation of health crisis.KCNA added.
North Korea has long boasted of its ability to prevent the virus, and has not reported onWHO any confirmed case of COVID-19.
COVID-19 could have spread across the country, analysts said, at major events held in April in Pyongyang. In particular, there was a military parade where neither the participants nor the spectators wore masks.
Source: Radio-Canada
