After Admitting First Ever COVID Infection, North Korea Confirms 21 New Deaths 'From Fever'

At a time when most of the world is starting to live like COVID-19 is a thing of the past, the virus appears to be catching up in North Korea.

For well over two years, when the world was ravaged by the pandemic North Korea was spared from it, at least that is what Kim Jong Un wants everyone to believe.

Last week, North Korea had confirmed the 'first ever' COVID-19 infections in the country and leader Kim Jong Un during a ruling party Politburo meeting had described the outbreak as a historically ¡°great upheaval¡± and called for unity between the government and people to stabilise the outbreak as quickly as possible.

AP

27 confirmed deaths so far

However, by their own admission, things are only getting worse in the Hermit kingdom.

Pyongyang on Saturday reported 21 new deaths and 174,440 more people with fever symptoms as the country scrambles to slow the spread of COVID-19 across its unvaccinated population.

The new deaths and cases since Friday increased the total numbers to 27 deaths and 524,440 illnesses amid a rapid spread of fever since late April.

Tests of virus samples collected Sunday from an unspecified number of people with fevers in the country's capital Pyongyang confirmed they were infected with the omicron variant, state media said.

AP

North Korea's 'lockdown'

North Korea said 243,630 people had recovered and 280,810 remained in quarantine. State media didn't specify how many of the fever cases and deaths were confirmed as COVID-19 infections.

The country imposed what it described as maximum preventive measures on Thursday after confirming its first COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

In a report presented to the Politburo, the North's emergency epidemic office blamed most of the deaths on ¡°mistakes like overmuch taking of drugs, bereft of scientific medical treatment¡±.

North Korea since Thursday has imposed steps aimed at restricting the movement of people and supplies between cities and counties, but state media's descriptions of the measures indicate people aren't being confined to their homes.

Reuters

Most North Koreans are unvaccinated

Experts say a failure to control the spread of COVID-19 could have devastating consequences in North Korea, considering the country's poor health care system and that its 26 million people are largely unvaccinated.

The country had shunned millions of doses offered by the UN-backed COVAX distribution programme, possibly because of concerns over international monitoring requirements attached to those shots.

North Korea has a higher tolerance for civilian suffering than most other nations and some experts say the country could be willing to accept a certain level of fatalities to gain immunity through infection, rather than receiving vaccines and other outside help.

(With agency inputs)

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