What’s new: North Korea reported 392,920 new “fever cases” and eight deaths nationwide in a 24-hour period ended at 6 p.m. Sunday, the state emergency epidemic prevention command office reported Monday.
Since the isolated country reported its first confirmed Covid cases May 12, 50 people have died and the total number of fever cases of unknown cause topped 1.2 million, or about 4.7% of the country’s population, according to the meeting.
North Korea has not called fever cases “Covid,” perhaps because the country doesn’t have enough testing kits to confirm that the cases were caused by the coronavirus.
At an emergency politburo meeting over the weekend, the authority attributed most of the deaths to lack of “scientific treatment” and “taking too much medicine.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held an emergency meeting Sunday, lambasting health officials for failing to execute his public health orders and ordering the military’s medical personnel to be deployed immediately to help distribute medicine in Pyongyang. After the meeting, Kim also visited a number of pharmacies in Pyongyang to learn about the supply and sales of medicines.
The background: While the rest of the world was fighting the pandemic during the past two years, the already reclusive country imposed strict entry bans in January 2020 and didn’t report any coronavirus cases. North Korea has also refused vaccine donations from the outside world.
When the outbreak emerged in China early 2020, North Korea asked China to tighten border controls and warned that people who got too close to the border might be shot. A rail link between China with North Korea resumed only in January.
North Korea has not disclosed the possible source of the recent outbreak or the number of people tested. It remains unclear how the virus might have slipped through the country's tightly sealed borders.
Some international media speculated that the spread of the virus might be related to the gathering of a large number of soldiers, university students and young people who participated in a military parade in Pyongyang and pre-parade ceremony April 25 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the nation’s army. Some imported supplies and materials for the parade might have carried the coronavirus, some media reports speculated.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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