North Korea’s complete blockade to cope with Covid-19

Many of the deaths were “careless in taking the drug due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the infection with the stealth variant of the virus.” Omicron as well as the right treatment,” according to the KCNA news agency.

Disinfectant spray at a shopping mall in Pyongyang AFP

The number of new deaths, occurring between the evening of May 13 and 18:00 on May 14, brings the total number of deaths to 42, and the total number of people with fever symptoms since the end of April has increased to 820,620. Of which, 496,030 people have recovered and at least 324,550 people are being treated. The data was compiled by the “state emergency pandemic prevention agency”, according to KCNA.

The new data comes after North Korea on May 12 confirmed its first Covid-19 case, an infection with the “stealth” sub-variant BA.2 of the Omicron variant, after more than two years of declaring no cases of infection. any. However, the North Korean press uses the word “person with a fever”, instead of a Covid-19 patient or a confirmed case, possibly because North Korea lacks test kits or other equipment to confirm the infection, according to Yonhap. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, North Korea is taking “rapid state emergency measures”.

“All the provinces, cities and districts of the country have been complete blockade and working, production and residential units have not been in contact with each other since the morning of May 12, and strict testing of all residents is underway,” KCNA reported. In addition, many senior North Korean officials have donated their stockpile of medicine to the fight against the pandemic.