Biden wants to help North Korea fight Covid-19, Japan relaxes entry rules

“We have made an offer to provide vaccines, not only to North Korea but also to China. We have prepared a vaccine supply immediately, but have not received a response,” Channel News Asia news agency quoted Biden as saying at a press conference held in Seoul, South Korea on May 21.

The White House boss said that he and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol had expressed concern about the outbreak of Covid-19 infections in North Korea. “South Korea and the United States are ready to cooperate with the international community to support North Korea’s epidemic prevention and control work,” the two leaders’ joint statement said.

According to Channel News Asia, North Korea has recorded nearly 2.5 million cases of “fever” and 66 deaths since the end of last month. The country’s media called it a “serious national emergency” and authorities were trying to respond. All cities are now under blockade and leader Kim Jong Un has deployed the military to help ensure drug supplies in the capital, Pyongyang.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that North Korea has yet to establish a Covid-19 vaccination program, leaving its population vulnerable to the onslaught of the dangerous pathogen. The medical system in the country also lacks the necessary medicines and supplies to fight the epidemic.

Japan relaxes entry rules

According to a government spokesman, the country will increase the number of people entering the country to 20,000 cases a day next month.

“The government will also relax regulations on testing and isolating people coming to Japan, and divide countries and territories into three groups according to the epidemic situation in those countries. For example, people in the group of ‘green’ countries, i.e. countries with low disease risk, will be exempted from testing when coming to Japan and only need to be isolated at home, “said Chief of the Internal Affairs Office. the Japanese Hirokazu Matsuno said.

“Those coming from the ‘red’ group of countries, which are at high risk of infection, will be required to undergo testing immediately after arriving in Japan and need to be isolated at medical facilities.” Mr. Matsuno added.

Some other developments on the epidemic

Updated at 5 am on May 22 by Worldometers global statistics page, the Covid-19 epidemic is raging in 220 countries and territories, infecting more than 526.9 million people and claiming lives. of nearly 6.3 million patients. The number of recoveries reached more than 496.7 million cases.

Singapore officials said that all of the Covid-19 infections in the country last month were of the Omicron strain. Specifically, up to 99% of infections have the BA.2 variant, while the remaining 1% have the BA.1 variant. “There were a total of 101,480 imported and domestic infections recorded in April, of which we detected two cases of variant BA.4,” a statement from Singapore’s Ministry of Health stated.

Tuan Tran