North Korea has reported a further 15 deaths suspected of being COVID-19

Seoul, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has confirmed another 15 deaths and hundreds of thousands more additional patients with fever as it mobilizes more than a million health workers and others to try to quell the country’s first Covid-19 outbreak, the media said. reports the government. Sunday.

Following a widely disputed claim that it has been free of coronavirus for more than two years, North Korea said on Thursday it had found its first COVID-19 patients since the start of the pandemic.

She said the fever had spread “explosively” across the country since the end of April, but she would not reveal how accurately the cases of Covid-19 had been identified. Some experts say North Korea lacks the diagnostic kits needed to test a large number of suspected Covid-19 patients.

The additional deaths reported on Sunday increased the number of deaths caused by fever in the country to 42. The official Central News Agency of Korea also reported a further 296,180 people with fever, bringing the total number reported to 820,620.

The outbreak has raised concerns about the humanitarian crisis in North Korea, as most of the country’s 26 million people are estimated to be immune to the coronavirus and the country’s health care system has been disorderly for decades. Some experts say North Korea could suffer significant deaths if it does not immediately receive shipments of vaccines, medicines and other medical supplies abroad.

In addition to the COVID-19 test kits, North Korea is focusing on body temperature tests to guess the infection. “However, with such a low-quality and inaccurate screening method, it is not possible to detect asymptomatic virus carriers and control virus mutations,” said Chaun Seong Chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

“While COVID-19 (suspected) infection is on the rise in North Korea, deaths are expected to continue to rise,” Cheung added.

Since Thursday, North Korea has imposed a nationwide blockade to fight the virus. Observers suggest that this could further strain the country’s fragile economy, which has suffered from a sharp decline in foreign trade in recent years due to the closure of pandemic borders, punishing UN economic sanctions for its nuclear program and mismanagement.

At a meeting on the outbreak on Saturday, North Korean leader Kim Chenun described the outbreak as a historic “major disturbance” and called for unity between the government and the people to stabilize the outbreak as soon as possible.

On Sunday, the Korea Central News Agency said more than 1.3 million people took part in the work to screen and treat patients and raise public awareness of hygiene. She added that all those with fever and others with unusual symptoms are quarantined and treated. The intensified response to the pandemic includes the creation of more quarantine facilities, the urgent transfer of medical supplies to hospitals and an increase in disinfection measures, the agency said.

And the agency said: “All provinces, cities and provinces in the country are completely closed, work units, production units and housing units have been closed to each other since the morning of 12 May, and strict and intensive inspections are currently being carried out. to all people. ” .

Among those infected with the symptoms have recovered, while 324,455 people received treatment on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency reports, citing the National Epidemic Prevention Center.

According to official media reports, Kim and other high-ranking North Korean officials are donating their own reserve drugs to support the country’s fight against the epidemic. During a meeting on Saturday, Kim expressed optimism that the state could control the outbreak, saying that most of the transmission takes place in communities that are isolated from each other and do not spread from one region to another.

Despite the outbreak, Kim has forced officials to continue with planned economic, construction and other government projects that show authorities are not asking people to confine themselves to their own homes. A few hours after recognizing the outbreak on Thursday, North Korea fired ballistic missiles at sea, continuing its recent series of weapons tests.

On Saturday, Kim, accompanied by senior deputies, visited a mourning station set up for senior official Jan Hjun Seop, who had died the previous day, to express condolences and meet with grieving relatives, the agency said. Korea’s Central News Agency said on Sunday that officials and workers in the northeast are launching initiatives to prevent the impending spring drought from adversely affecting yields and quality.

South Korea and China have offered to send vaccines, medical supplies and other relief supplies to North Korea, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to these initiatives. North Korea has previously rejected millions of doses of vaccine provided by the UN-backed COVAX distribution program because of speculation that it is concerned about possible side effects of the vaccine or international surveillance requirements related to these shots.

White House spokeswoman Zen Psaki said on Thursday that the United States supports international aid efforts but has no plans to share vaccine supplies with North Korea. The outbreak of the virus in North Korea may remain a major topic of discussion when President Joe Biden visits Seoul later this week to attend a summit with the recently inaugurated President of South Korea, Jon Sokjol.

Former South Korean spy chief Park Jivon wrote on Facebook on Friday that in May 2021, as director of the National Intelligence Service, he proposed that Washington send 60 million doses of vaccine to North Korea as humanitarian aid through COVAX. He said there were subsequent talks at the United Nations and the Vatican to send 60 million doses to North Korea as well, but the aid was never implemented because no formal offers were made to North Korea.

The park said it hoped North Korea would soon accept Jonah’s offers of help, although he doubted North Korea would do so.

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