North Korea: 15 new deaths from “fever” in the midst of the Covid outbreak

The official toll continues to climb. Three days after North Korea recognized the circulation of Covid-19 on its territory, the KCNA agency mentioned this Sunday the death of fifteen additional people, carried away by a “fever”. Fifteen new deaths due to ” fever” were recorded in North Korea, three days after the official announcement of the very first case of Covid-19 in the country, the official KCNA news agency said on Sunday. According to her, a total of 42 people died, while 820,620 cases of “fever” were reported, of which at least 324,550 required medical treatment. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un admitted on Saturday that a “malignant disease” has caused “great upheaval” in the country. production centers and residences have been isolated from each other,” KCNA reported. none of whom are vaccinated, the country reports a large number of new cases every day. Pyongyang announced on Thursday that people had tested positive for Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant and its first death. Kim Jong Un immediately ordered containment measures. North Korea, which was one of the first countries in the world to close its borders in January 2020 after the appearance of Covid-19 in neighboring China, has long touted for its ability to keep the virus at bay. She had not previously reported any confirmed cases to the WHO. Kim Jong-Un refused with outstretched hands The country’s health system, one of the worst in the world (it was ranked 193rd out of 195 countries by a survey Johns Hopkins University), lack of essential drugs and equipment, experts say. Pyongyang has also rejected vaccination offers from the WHO, China and Russia. According to KCNA, however, Kim Jong-Un said the country will “actively learn lessons” from China’s strategy to fight the pandemic, which consists of large-scale lockdowns and ruthlessly tracing and isolating all positive cases. KCNA n It has not been specified whether the new cases and deaths recorded have tested positive for Covid-19, but experts believe that the country is not in a position to carry out a large-scale screening campaign. According to some analysts, leader Kim may speed up his weapons testing program to divert people’s attention from the epidemic situation. The United States and South Korea have recently claimed that Pyongyang is preparing to resume its nuclear tests, halted since 2017. Satellite images recently indicated that the regime had restarted construction of a reactor at its main nuclear facility.