Earlier this week, North Korea which is one of the only unvaccinated countries made an unprecedented admission of its first Covid outbreak earlier this week, after claiming that the country had not reported any cases since the pandemic began two years ago.
“The spread of the malignant epidemic is a great turmoil to fall on our country since the founding,” State news agency KCNA quoted Kim as telling an emergency meeting of the country’s ruling Worker’s Party.
“But if we don’t lose focus in implementing epidemic policy and maintain strong organisation power and control based on single-minded unity of the party and the people and strengthen our epidemic battle, we can more than overcome the crisis.”
The numbers recorded represent a fraction of total cases, given North Korea’s testing capabilities, and this could lead to thousands of deaths in one of the only two countries in the world that is completely unvaccinated.
The outbreak of Covid-19 could also deepen the food crisis, with the lockdown restricting movements and hampering anti-drought efforts and the movements of goods. The Worker’s Party meeting heard reports of roughly 280,810 people being treated and 27 people declared dead from an unidentified fever starting in late April, KCNA said.
The state media did not say whether the deaths were due to Covid-19. KCNA said one death had been confirmed to be from the Omicron variant.
Source: Reuters, Al Jazeera, Times Live, The Guardian, Sky News, image from The Guardian
