SEOUL — North Korea on Saturday reported a dramatic rise in suspected coronavirus infections and deaths as it struggled to contain its first reported outbreak, which the country’s leader Kim Jong-un has said may be “the biggest crisis since our nation’s founding.” could.
State media said another 174,400 people had symptoms such as fever that could be a result of Covid-19, a nearly 10-fold increase from the 18,000 such cases reported on Friday. It also said 21 other people had died related to the outbreak, bringing the country’s total to 27. However, the reports did not specify how many of the new infections or deaths from testing had been definitively linked to Covid-19.
“North Korea only reports ‘people with a fever’ because it doesn’t have enough testing kits,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Sejong Institute’s Center for North Korean Studies in South Korea. “Some of the people with fevers may not be actual patients, but there could be far more cases in asymptomatic people without fevers. So the actual number of infected will likely be higher than what the North has announced.”
Most of the newly reported deaths are due to “drug overdoses and other negligence due to lack of knowledge in scientific treatment,” North Korean health officials were quoted as saying during a high-level meeting on Saturday. At the meeting, Mr Kim slammed health officials from the ruling North Workers’ Party for “incompetence” and “irresponsibility,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
After years of insisting it had no Covid-19 cases and turning down offers of humanitarian aid, North Korea admitted on Thursday an outbreak had started in late April. The country has reported a total of 524,400 people with Covid-like symptoms since the end of last month. State media said on Saturday that 243,630 had fully recovered and 280,810 were still in quarantine.
Health experts have long expressed concern about the North’s ability to combat a major coronavirus outbreak due to its worn-out public health system and low vaccination coverage. International health organizations and the South Korean government have said they are ready to ship vaccines, therapeutics and other supplies should the North ask for them.
State media reports on Saturday did not indicate whether the North would consider accepting such aid, but they did point to a poorly functioning public health system.
Mr Kim was quoted as telling health officials to learn from “the disease control policies, achievements and experiences of advanced nations,” particularly the “abundant epidemiological achievements and experiences of the Chinese Communist Party and its people.”
North Korea appeared to be following its ally China’s playbook with extreme Covid restrictions as it declared a “maximum emergency” this week and ordered all cities and counties in the nation of 25 million to go into lockdown. It also ordered them to “isolate each work unit, production unit and housing unit from each other.”
The government said it was examining how “all national funds and resources” could be mobilized to get patients the medicines they need.
At Saturday’s meeting, Mr Kim said North Korea sees “no uncontrollable spread of the virus between regions” but only infections in cordoned off areas and units. He also said most of the reported symptoms had been mild.
Mr Kim said that although “the spread of the vicious virus may be the greatest crisis since our nation was founded,” it could be overcome if the Labor Party and the public were “united as one,” according to state media reports.
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