Corona pandemic: North Korea reports first Covid 19 death

Status: 05/13/2022 08:18 a.m

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A good two years after the global outbreak of the corona pandemic, North Korea is now also reporting a large spread. An omicron subvariant was detected in one dead person. Only yesterday had the country reported corona cases for the first time.

North Korea has reported a first death in the country after being infected with the corona virus. Since the end of April, six people have died with a fever that, for reasons that are still unclear, has spread explosively across the country, the state media reported. The omicron subvariant BA.2 was found in one of the victims.

Only yesterday did the isolated and authoritarian country officially confirm infections with the pathogen for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic more than two years ago. The undetermined number of cases therefore occurred in Pyongyang. More than 350,000 people reportedly developed “the fever of unknown origin” within a short period of time. For more than 162,000 of them it has completely subsided. However, almost 188,000 patients in quarantine would still be treated.

Nationwide lockdown

It was initially unclear how many were actually infected with the corona virus. According to observers, the numbers indicated the potential extent of the corona outbreak in the country. Experts had long warned that North Korea would find it difficult to deal with a major outbreak due to its inadequate health system.

North Korea itself spoke of the “most serious emergency of the state”. North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un ordered a nationwide lockdown yesterday. All cities and counties should be in strict lockdown. How people are cared for during a curfew was considered unclear. According to the United Nations, large parts of the population in the country with almost 26 million inhabitants are undernourished.

Kim criticizes the prevention system

During a visit to the state epidemic prevention center, Kim complained that there was a “vulnerable point” in the existing emergency prevention system, state media reported. Kim was quoted as saying that every work and production facility as well as all living units would have to be isolated from one another. He said he was confident that the authorities responsible could “wipe out the sources of the spread of the malicious epidemic”.

The communist leadership had closed the country’s borders early on because of the pandemic, which also had a strong impact on trade with China. In January this year, China initially confirmed that it would resume freight traffic with its neighboring country. At the end of April, however, cross-border iron freight traffic was suspended again after new cases of infection in the Chinese border city of Dandong.