On Thursday, North Korea reported 18,000 new “fever cases” and six deaths, one of which was positive for Omicron’s BA.2 sub-option, state media KCNA reported on Friday.
“Fever, the cause of which cannot be identified, has spread explosively across the country since late April,” the newspaper said. “Currently, up to 187,800 people are isolated.”
The outbreak of Covid-19 could be catastrophic for North Korea. The country’s deteriorating health infrastructure is unlikely to cope with the task of treating large numbers of patients with highly infectious diseases, and the nation is not known to have imported coronavirus vaccines.
North Korea has not previously recognized any cases of coronavirus, although few believe that a country of about 25 million people has been spared a virus that has infected millions around the world.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the state headquarters for the prevention of emergency epidemics on Thursday and acknowledged that the spread of the outbreak means that there is a “vulnerability” in the country’s epidemic prevention system, according to KCNA.
“The most important challenge and ultimate challenge for our party is to reverse the immediate public health crisis,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
After a meeting of the country’s powerful Politburo on Thursday, North Korea put all cities under blockade and ordered “people with fever or unusual symptoms” to be quarantined, the KCNA said.
On Thursday, China said it was ready to support North Korea in its fight against Covid-19.
North Korea’s borders have been sealed since January 2020 to keep the virus at bay, despite the impact on trade with Beijing, an economic lifeline that the poor country needs to protect its people from starvation.
“As comrades, neighbors and friends, China is ready to give full support to the DPRK in its fight against the epidemic,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijiang told a briefing.
As China struggles with its own outbreak, China’s national immigration administration has called on Jilin province – which borders North Korea – to step up health inspections at customs after North Korea announced its first case of Covid-19.
Zero vaccines can mean disaster
North Korea is believed not to have been vaccinated against Covid, although it qualifies for the Covid-19 global vaccine sharing program, Covax.
Covax reportedly reduced the number of doses given to North Korea in February as the country failed to arrange any shipments, according to Reuters.
Assuming that the majority of North Korea’s population is not vaccinated, an epidemic in North Korea – which has limited testing facilities, inadequate medical infrastructure and is isolated from the outside world – could quickly become deadly.
Calls on the country’s leadership to provide access to vaccines are growing.
“There is no evidence that North Korea has access to enough vaccines to protect its population from Covid-19. Still, it has rejected millions of doses of AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines offered by the WHO-led COVAX program, Amnesty International said. East Asian researcher Boram Zhang in a statement.
“With the first official news of a Covid-19 outbreak in the country, continuing on this path could cost many lives and would be an unintentional disregard for the protection of the right to health.
From Philip Wang of CNN contributed.
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