North Korea has reported no coronavirus cases for the first time since the country’s first case of infection emerged in May, state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday.
“No new ‘fever’ patients have been reported” in a 24-hour period since Thursday night, the agency said. A novelty since the country began counting coronavirus cases in May.
The term “febrile patient” is used by the North Korean authorities to designate people infected with the coronavirus due, according to some, to the lack of detection tests.
North Korea has recorded nearly 4.8 million cases of the virus since the end of April, KCNA said, adding that “99.994 percent” have been completely cured and only 204 patients are under treatment.
First case in May
Pyongyang announced its first coronavirus case on May 12, and leader Kim Jong Un has personally taken charge of fighting the outbreak.
In late May, the country said it was beginning to see “progress” in controlling the outbreak, but experts dispute that claim, citing the country’s poor health infrastructure and unvaccinated population.
North Korea, one of the first countries in the world to close its borders in January 2020 after the virus emerged in neighboring China, has long boasted of its ability to keep the virus at bay.
North Korea’s health system was ranked 193rd out of 195 countries in a study last year by Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
The country’s hospitals are notoriously poorly equipped, with few intensive care units.
According to experts, the country has no treatment for Covid-19 and does not have the capacity to massively test its population. Another big challenge: the approximately 25 million North Koreans are not vaccinated, Pyongyang having rejected the offer of vaccines made by the WHO.
Source: BFM TV
