North Korea confirm the first case Covid-19 after three years the pandemic took place on Thursday (12/5).
State media KCNA declared the incident a “severe national emergency” after more than three years claiming to have prevented the emergence of Covid-19 cases.
KCNA said samples taken from a fever-stricken patient in Pyongyang on Sunday last week were “consistent with” the highly contagious Omicron variant Covid-19.
The country’s top officials, including the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-unimmediately held an emergency politburo meeting to discuss the Covid-19 outbreak that had just emerged in North Korea.
The North Korean government announced it would implement a “maximum emergency” virus control system.
KCNA reported at the emergency meeting, Kim Jong-un said “the government’s main goal is to eliminate the source of the transmission of Covid-19 in the shortest possible period of time.”
“He assured us that due to the high political awareness of the people … we will definitely overcome the emergency and successfully implement the emergency quarantine program,” he said.
Kim calls for tighter border controls and lockdown measures (lockdown).
“Kim Jong-un also told all citizens to completely stop the spread of the evil virus by completely closing off their territories in all cities and counties across the country,” the KCNA report said.
All business and production activities will be regulated so that each work unit is “isolated” to prevent the spread of disease, he added.
Quoted AFPThis nuclear-armed country, which is in the throes of an economic and food crisis, has still closed its territory from the outside world since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic spreading around early 2020.
So far, North Korea has claimed to have no cases of Covid-19 to date.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), North Korea at the end of 2020 had carried out 13,259 Covid-19 tests and all of them were negative.
Analysts fear North Korea’s dilapidated health system will have to do its utmost to contain the emerging Covid-19 virus outbreak.
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