The communist state run by ruthless leader Kim Jong-un recently reported its first official case of COVID-19 this week following a brutal lockdown during the pandemic.
However, the new unknown wave of illness sweeping across the nation has only resulted in one positive test for Covid sparking fears of a new illness. According to state media, some 187,000 people were being “isolated and treated” for the sickness which includes a fever as one of its symptoms.
Reports have emerged of an outbreak of the Omicron strain of the Covid virus in Pyongyang, however, numbers have not been able to be verified. So far, the alienated state has only admitted to one death since the start of the global pandemic. In an update on Friday, KCNA said: “A fever whose cause couldn’t be identified spread explosively nationwide from late April.”
During the pandemic, experts feared a COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea would be devastating, especially as the country is one of only two countries in the world that are yet to start vaccinating their populations. The other is Eritrea.
After the novel coronavirus began to spread across Asia in early 2020, North Korea shut its borders and committed to a zero COVID-19 policy. It only reopened its borders in January this year.
According to Insider, The pandemic has hit North Korea hard, even before it reported cases, with the border closure precipitating widespread food shortages. In an attempt to try and solve the hunger crisis, state-run media reported in October that the government had started breeding black swans to be culled for food.
As the pandemic raged around the world, North Korea was vigilant in trying to prevent imported cases of COVID-19. In July 2020, Kim locked down the entire city of Kaesong and issued a “top-class alert” after a person suspected of having COVID-19 snuck across the border from South Korea, according to state media. In August, North Korea announced new hard labor punishments for anyone who met in groups of more than three people.
