(Seoul) The number of cases of “fever” in North Korea has dropped for the 7e consecutive day on Friday, state media KCNA reported, which did not specifically cite COVID-19.
Posted at 10:33 a.m.
North Korean news agency KCNA reported just over 100,000 new cases of “fever” as it is officially called COVID-19 on Friday, down from 390,000. dailies reported at the beginning of the month.
KCNA also reported one additional death on Friday — bringing the total to 69 — and said the fatality rate remains at 0.002%. According to her, more than three million people have fallen ill with the “fever” since authorities recognized its existence in North Korea on May 12.
Authorities had officially announced over the weekend that they had successfully contained a recent outbreak of COVID-19.
An assertion that experts, however, question, the 25 million North Koreans are not vaccinated and the health system of their country is one of the worst in the world.
KCNA also said the country was “scaling up the development and production of tests and drugs.”
“Tens of millions of drugs of more than 90 kinds were supplied to different parts of the country on May 24 alone,” the news agency said.
North Korea, which has declared a “maximum state of emergency” over the outbreak, has stepped up production of antipyretic drugs and thermometers, among others, state media reported last week.
Since the start of the pandemic, initially detected in China at the end of 2019, the North Korean regime had rejected vaccination offers from China, Russia and the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to experts, the country has no treatment for COVID-19 and lacks the capacity to massively test its population.
During his trip to South Korea on Saturday, US President Joe Biden also indicated that Washington had offered to provide vaccines against COVID-19 to North Korea, but had “not received a response”.