North Korea’s daily fever counts fell below 100,000 for the first time on Saturday, according to state media, less than three weeks after the regime officially acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak.
Since declaring a state of emergency and instituting a statewide lockdown earlier this month, the secluded country has been fighting an unprecedented COVID outbreak, fueling fears of a scarcity of vaccines, medical supplies, and food.
According to the official KCNA news agency, which cited data from the state emergency epidemic prevention centre, 88,520 more people had fever symptoms as of Friday evening, compared to roughly 400,000 about ten days ago.
Since April, the overall number of fever sufferers has risen to 3.36 million out of a population of 25 million. There were no other deaths reported by KCNA. The death toll had risen to 69 as of Friday.
Due to a shortage of testing supplies, North Korea has not confirmed the overall number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus. According to experts, the announced data may be underreported, and determining the true scope of the problem is difficult.
Authorities are pressing for ‘strict, fast, and advanced’ medical check-ups and tests, according to state media, with ‘all sectors and units’ in the country ‘maintaining the highest alert and mobilised posture’ to fight the virus.
‘To thoroughly check the intrusions of new viral types, multiple protection walls have been built for the lockdown and closure of the capital city, border, front, coasts, seas, and airspace,’ KCNA reported.
South Korea and the US have offered to assist North Korea in fighting the pandemic, including by providing vaccines, but Pyongyang has not reacted.
Post Your Comments