North Korea says its COVID outbreak is spreading fast

GBNews24 Desk//

North Korea reported a dramatic surge in suspected coronavirus infections and deaths Saturday as it struggled to contain its first reported outbreak, which the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, said could be “the biggest crisis since our nation’s founding,” reports The New York Times.

State media said an additional 174,400 people had symptoms, like fever, that could be due to COVID-19, nearly a tenfold jump from the 18,000 such cases reported Friday.

It also said 21 more people had died in connection with the outbreak, bringing the country’s total to 27. But the reports did not say how many of the new infections or deaths had been definitively linked to COVID-19 through testing.

“North Korea is reporting only ‘people with fever’ because it does not have enough test kits,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies of the Sejong Institute in South Korea. “Some of the people with fever may not be actual patients, but there could be far more cases among asymptomatic people without any fever. So the actual number of infected people will likely be more than the North has announced.”

Most of the newly reported deaths were caused by “overdoses of medication and other negligence caused by a lack of knowledge in scientific treatment,” North Korean health officials were quoted as saying during a high-level meeting Saturday. At the meeting, Kim criticized health officials in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party for “incompetence” and “irresponsibility,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

After insisting for years that it had no COVID-19 cases and rejecting offers of humanitarian aid, North Korea admitted Thursday that an outbreak had begun in late April. The country has reported a total of 524,400 people with COVID-like symptoms since late last month. State media said Saturday that 243,630 had recovered fully and 280,810 were still in quarantine.

Health experts have long expressed concern about the North’s ability to battle a major coronavirus outbreak because of its threadbare public health system and low vaccination rate. International health organizations and the South Korean government have said that they were ready to ship vaccines, therapeutics and other aid should the North ask for it.