With little testing and no vaccine, the coronavirus is out of control in North Korea

Covid continues to spread rapidly in North Korea, which on Wednesday reported more than 232,000 new infections and which, for the third consecutive day, ignored an offer of help from the South. This suggests that so far the regime seems willing to seek help only from Moscow or Beijing.

The epidemic prevention center reported another six deaths in the last 24 hours, which seemed to be related to covid (in total, they were 62 died since the presence of the virus was confirmed in the country last week) and 232,880 new potential cases or “fever”.

There have been 1.71 million people who have contracted these “fevers” (this is the term North Korea uses to identify suspected cases, as it has almost no capacity to test) since the virus began to spread, according to the regime, in end of April, with 1.02 million people already recovered and about 691,170 currently under treatment.

The situation in the suffering country is worrying because the omicron subvariant has been proven to be contagious and because few sources of discovery that it is currently available (from data published by the authorities, it is estimated that positives for covid were determined only in 0.02% of cases).

Also due to the fact that the regime did not apply a vaccine -rejected the donation of nearly five million doses in 2021- and seems to have no intention yet to design a national induction plan.

fast transmission

The data, in fact, reflects a very fast transmission nationwide (nearly 7% of the population seems to have been infected in less than a month), with special incidents in the capital, Pyongyang, and in municipalities with high economic activity and logistics links such as Nampo (west), Kaesong (south) or Rason (northeast).

The numbers also indicate that 40% of deaths correspond to those over 60 years of age, and that, in turn, nearly a third of those who died were under 20 years of age.

In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern on Tuesday about the fact that the shortage of vaccines has been exacerbated by the fact that most of the population suffers from pre -existing health problems.

WHO also asked Pyongyang to share detailed information on the situation with the agency, which is willing to cooperate with “technical support and supplies that include tests, diagnostics, essential medicines and vaccines,” according to its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus .

Outbreak response failures

North Korea’s state agency KCNA also reported that the politburo held another meeting on Tuesday chaired by Kim Jong-un in which inadequate responses were evaluated of “party officials and state organs” in crisis.

Kim spoke of “immaturity”, “negative thoughts” or “laziness” in “the early stages” of a health emergency, where, he said, “time is the essence”.

In this regard, he praised the state’s new “maximum emergency” system at the epidemic level, which according to the KCNA, has mobilized 3,000 soldiers to ensure the supply of medicines, and 1.4 million public health officials, as well as student and medical teacher. sector.

Although the regime spoke about incarceration in “every city and county” and the absence of observers makes it difficult to assess the real situationthe media with ground sources points to a certain normality within the country, that it is in the midst of the rice planting campaign, which is important for the North Korean pantry, especially in a year of severe drought such as this one.

Moreover, the KCNA reported that “grain and vegetable transportation teams have been organized and mobile posts have been installed in every town and village to improve the comfort of the residents here”, which seems to confirm what the experts are saying. this media; allowing it to get out of the house but that almost everyone is forbidden to leave their municipality.

North Korean media also reported that two major construction projects in Pyongyang and in the east of the country were proceeding according to plan and that agricultural workers and volunteers (North Korea) mobilized a large portion of the population to help the farms. ) is engaged in rice transplant, as shown in photographs taken from the Chinese or South Korean border.

official silence

In Seoul, the South Korean government said Wednesday that the regime ignored, on the third day, his conversation to meet and discuss the sending of unconditional assistance he promised his neighbor.

Various media outlets reported North Korean planes loading supplies at Chinese airports, while Moscow and Pyongyang spoke directly on sending aid on Tuesday.

This suggests that North Korea does not seem inclined to use the pandemic as a bridge to resume stalled talks with South Korea and the U.S., something it has shown in recent times with a weapons modernization plan behind it. of the number of missile tests this year and an imminent nuclear test.

Many experts believe that Pyongyang, which has been locked down since 2020, at the moment it does not seem ready to receive any vaccine, not even from Moscow or Beijing, because of their reluctance to show over-reliance on foreign powers or the need to allow the entry of external personnel to advise inoculation programs.

Source: EFE

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