First COVID Case In North Korea Prompts Nationwide Lockdown; US Close To 1 Million Deaths

North Korea has confirmed its first-ever case of Covid-19 and declared a "severe national emergency", with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to "eliminate" the virus, state media said Thursday.

The impoverished, nuclear-armed country has never admitted to a case of Covid-19, with the government imposing a rigid coronavirus blockade of its borders since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

But samples taken from patients sick with a fever in the capital were "consistent with" the virus' highly transmissible Omicron variant, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, held a crisis politburo meeting to discuss the outbreak and announced they would implement a "maximum emergency" virus control system.

AP

Kim told the meeting that "the goal was to eliminate the root within the shortest period of time," according to KCNA.

"He assured us that because of the people's high political awareness... we will surely overcome the emergency and win the emergency quarantine project," it said.

Kim called for tighter border controls and lockdown measures, telling citizens "to completely block the spread of the malicious virus by thoroughly blocking their areas in all cities and counties across the country".

All business and production activities will be organised so each work unit is "isolated" to prevent the spread of disease, KCNA added.

Experts believe North Korea has not vaccinated any of its 25 million people, having rejected offers of vaccinations from the World Health Organisation, and China and Russia.

US nears one million COVID deaths

The United States is about to cross the threshold of one million deaths from Covid-19, a grim milestone that comes as cities like New York try to turn the page on the pandemic despite threats of another surge.

"It's unfathomable," Diana Berrent, one of the first people in New York state to catch coronavirus, said of the count that far exceeds epidemiologists' worst predictions made at the outbreak of the crisis in spring 2020.

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Then, New York City was the virus epicenter. Hospitals and morgues overflowed and empty streets rang to the sound of ambulance sirens as then-president Donald Trump responded chaotically in Washington.

Two years on, and life in the Big Apple is largely back to normal as residents attempt to put the collective trauma of the virus that has killed 40,000 New Yorkers behind them.

New York's rebound has been aided by its high vaccination numbers -- some 88 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, a rate that was boosted by mandates, including for indoor activities like dining.

But deaths kept soaring amid a slow take-up of shots in conservative areas of the country, and in February 2021 America counted 500,000 dead.

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