North Korea Covid-19 outbreak: Over 10 lakh ‘fever’ cases in 5 days, death toll reaches 50

The North Korean authorities confirmed eight more deaths in the country, as well as upwards of 3.5 lakh fresh cases of “fever” symptoms in the midst of one of the most rapidly growing Covid-19 outbreaks recorded in the world.

It is likely that North Korea is recording an explosive increase in Covid-19 cases, with upwards of 1.2 million or 12 lakh cases of “fever” being recorded in just four days. This has prompted the North Korean authorities to tighten the lockdown curbs in the country.

North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly blasted officials over delays in medicine deliveries and ordered his military to get involved in the pandemic response in the country's capital, Pyongyang.

The North's emergency anti-virus headquarters said more than 1.2 million people fell ill amid a rapid spread of fever since late April and about 564,860 are currently under quarantine. North Korea was the only country with a significant population to not report any Covid-19 cases over the last two years of the pandemic.

The North Korean authorities have still not confirmed how many of the “fever” cases were actually Covid-19. After reports of eight new deaths over the last 24 hours, the death toll after the recent Covid-19 outbreak in North Korea has reached 50.

North Korea has not yet revealed its plan to battle the pandemic, with the entirety of its population believed to be unvaccinated against the virus two years into the global Covid-19 outbreak. Experts say the failure to slow the virus could have dire consequences for North Korea, considering its poor health care system.

North Korea acknowledged its first Covid-19 outbreak last Thursday when it announced that an unspecified number of people in Pyongyang tested positive for the omicron outbreak. It had previously held for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

(With PTI inputs)

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