SEOUL (dpa-AFX) – Against the background of the admitted corona outbreak, North Korea has reported 15 new deaths and almost 300,000 other fever patients. Without naming the disease directly, North Korea continued to speak of the spread of the epidemic on Sunday. The state-controlled media reported that the death toll had risen to 42. More than half of the 820,000 fever-related cases nationwide have recovered.
According to reports, North Korea has so far mobilized almost 1.45 million people to fight the epidemic. They are supposed to pass on hygiene information and examine people. They would have to ensure that anyone with a fever and other “unusual symptoms” is quarantined and treated there. Since Thursday morning, “all provinces, cities and counties in the country have been completely sealed off in accordance with the party and government’s emergency measures,” it said.
How many of the fever cases can actually be traced back to a corona disease remained unclear. Experts suspect that North Korea does not have the capacity to conduct mass tests. The largely isolated and authoritarian country officially confirmed infections with the pathogen for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic.
On Thursday, North Korea initially spoke of an undetermined number of residents of the capital Pyngyang who had contracted the corona virus. A day later it was said that the virus had spread across the country. Six people with fever died and the omicron subvariant BA.2 was detected in one victim. North Korea had long claimed to be corona-free. The information was doubted abroad./dg/DP/he