North Korea on Thursday confirmed its first corona case after allegedly avoiding the virus for two years. State media called it a serious national crisis.
On Thursday, the message came that at least one person has died with the virus, reports Reuters.
The country’s leader Kim Jong-un has sworn to overcome the outbreak, saying that the country will introduce infection control and quarantine rules at a “maximum emergency” level.
The state news agency KCNA wrote that Kim has stated that “the goal is to eliminate the source of infection within the shortest possible time”.
Stricter border controls and closure measures were introduced.
Several died of “fever”
– WILL BE DOWNLOAD: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has sworn to overcome the corona outbreak. Photo: Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP / NTB
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– A fever whose cause could not be identified, has spread around the country since the end of April. Six people have died, one of them tested positive for BA. The 2-sub variant of omikron, writes KCNA.
It is further stated that 187,000 are “isolated and treated” for the fever symptoms.
Will block the spread
The country’s residents are being asked to “completely block the spread of the harmful virus by thoroughly blocking their areas in all cities and counties in the country”, writes the news agency.
All business activity and production will be organized so that all work units are “isolated” to prevent the spread of infection, it is further stated.
Analysts have said that North Korea’s faltering health care system will struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak.
Not vaccinated
The poor nuclear country has been subject to a self-imposed blockade since the outbreak of the corona pandemic.
The economy has suffered severely, and foreign trade has virtually stopped.
Train traffic between the border town of Sinuiju and the Chinese town of Dandong was tentatively reopened in January, but China announced in April that trade had been temporarily halted, as the Chinese dealt with a corona eruption in Dandong.
North Korea has so far rejected the vaccines it has been offered through the UN-backed Covax program, possibly because they come with international requirements for controls.
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