Fifteen new deaths from “fever” have been recorded in North Korea, three days following the official announcement of the country’s first case of COVID-19, the official KCNA news agency said on Saturday.
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According to her, a total of 42 people have died, while 820,620 cases of fever have been reported, of which at least 324,550 are under medical treatment.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un acknowledged on Saturday that the outbreak had caused “great upheaval” in the country. “The spread of a malignant disease is disrupting our Korean country,” he said.
KCNA reported that “all provinces, cities and counties across the country have been completely locked down, and workplaces, production centers and residences have been closed.”
Although it has urgently activated its quarantine system in order to stem the spread of the disease among the 25 million inhabitants, none of whom are vaccinated, the country reports a large number of new cases every day.
Pyongyang announced on Thursday that people had tested positive for Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant and announced its first death. Kim Jong-un immediately ordered containment measures.
North Korea, which was one of the first countries in the world to close its borders in January 2020 following the virus emerged in neighboring China, has long boasted of its ability to keep the virus at bay. Until then, it had not reported any confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the WHO.
The country’s health system — one of the worst in the world — is failing and lacks essential drugs and equipment, experts say.
