North Korea announced today that it has recorded 21 more deaths from Covid-19. Since the end of April, at least 27 deaths and more than 500,000 infections have been recorded by Pyongyang in the first wave of the disease declared by the country’s regime.
According to the official KCNA agency, on Friday (13), 21 deaths occurred in addition to 174,440 new cases of “fever” in the country due to the North Korean regime’s reference to Covid-19. With the new balance, the total number of cases reached 524,440 and the number of deaths reached 27.
The epidemic, which was triggered at the end of April, is spreading “uncontrollably” due to the country’s scarce testing capacity, as well as the flawed healthcare system, according to official information. Pyongyang, where 25 million people are unvaccinated, declared a strict curfew last week.
For Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea, the situation in the country may be much more serious than portrayed. Due to the large number of asymptomatic cases, the actual number of Covid-19 cases (…) may be higher,” he warned.
prevent the spread of the virus
On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that “the highest priority is to contain the spread of the virus by actively sealing off areas and isolating and responsibly treating people with a ‘fever’.” This Saturday, for the second time in a week, KCNA called an urgent meeting with the top of the regime, admitting that the epidemic had caused “major turmoil” in the country.
According to the agency, the meeting focused on the distribution of drugs and other methods to “minimize the loss of human life.” Kim Jong-un would have promised to adopt the model China is using to manage Covid-19, the controversial “Zero Covid” policy, as well as greater access of the population to drugs against the disease.
Even more isolated from the world during the pandemic, North Korea rejected anti-covid vaccine offers from China, Russia and the World Health Organization (WHO). Experts point out that the country has one of the worst hospital systems in the world and is often plagued with a shortage of medicines and essential equipment.
According to Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, Kim Jong-un has been trying to get into the “first line of fighting” against the disease lately, by putting on a mask and duplicating statements on television. “But the language he uses indicates that the situation in North Korea will only get worse,” he said.
vaccine offer
South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office last week, made himself available on Friday to send a vaccine to North Korean territory. However, he admitted that the issue was not discussed with Pyongyang.
The coming to power of the conservative South Korean leader is not welcomed by North Korea. Yoon Suk-yeol recently offered to mediate the resumption of negotiations for the denuclearization of its northern neighbor, further angering Kim Jong-un, who has been actively testing his ballistic and nuclear arsenal since the beginning of this year.
Hours after it announced the first Covid-19 outbreak, on Thursday (12), in the country’s 16th weapons test in 2022, the communist regime launched three ballistic missiles from the Sunan area near the capital. Satellite imagery also resumed North Korea’s rebuilding of its nuclear reactor, which had been stalled for months.
(With information from AFP)
source: Noticias
