Seoul, May 12, 2022 (AFP) — North Korea recognized this Thursday (Wednesday, 11, Brasilia time) as its first outbreak of Covid-19 in the country since the start of the pandemic, which official media reported as ” declared as a serious incident”. National Emergency”.
The official KCNA news agency said on Sunday samples collected from several ill patients with fever in Pyongyang were “consistent” with the highly contagious Omicron version of the virus. coronavirus,
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said at an emergency meeting of his political cabinet that he would implement a “maximum emergency” virus control system aimed at “eliminating the root cause in the shortest possible time”, according to the agency.
“He assured us that, due to the high level of political awareness of the population, (…) we would overcome the emergency safely and be successful with the emergency quarantine plan,” he said.
KCNA reported that Kim ordered strict border control and containment measures from his citizens to “completely prevent the spread of the malicious virus by carefully closing off his territory in all cities and counties across the country”.
He said all commercial and production activities would be organized so that each unit could be “isolated” to avoid infection.
The poor nuclear-armed country imposed a foreign lockdown in early 2020 to protect itself from the pandemic, which has crippled economic problems and crippled trade.
Since the start of the pandemic, North Korea has not confirmed a single case of the coronavirus.
According to the World Health Organisation, the country conducted 13,259 tests for Covid-19 by the end of 2020, all with negative results.
Analysts say North Korea’s ailing health system will struggle to cope with a major coronavirus outbreak.
