The WHO assumes that the situation is getting worse in North Korea, faced with a wave of Covid-19 and deplores the lack of information and cooperation from the Pyongyang authorities, who assure for their part that the number of cases of ” fever” goes down.
“At the moment we are unable to make a proper assessment of the situation on the ground. We are assuming that things are getting worse, not better,” World Health Organization emergency manager Dr Michael Ryan told a press briefing. Wednesday in Geneva.
“Again, it is very, very difficult to provide a correct analysis to the rest of the world when we do not have the necessary data,” he insisted, explaining that the WHO had the same information that Pyongyang wants. provide well to the rest of the world.
According to Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, in charge of managing the response to the Covid-19 pandemic within the organization, North Korea has recorded a total of 3.7 million cases of Covid-19. The authorities do not officially speak of “fever”.
On Friday, state media KCNA said the number of such “fever” cases had dropped for the 7th day in a row with just over 100,000 new cases on Friday, down from 390,000 daily cases reported in early May. As of May 27, the official death toll was 69.
“Many healings have been reported but there is only limited information coming to us from the country,” said Dr. van Kerkhove.
The 25 million North Koreans are not vaccinated and the health system of their country is one of the worst in the world.
Dr Ryan explained that the WHO had “multiple times offered help” to the North Korean authorities, including vaccines “on three occasions”. And “we continue to offer them”, he hammered.
He explained that the WHO was working with China and South Korea to try to move forward.
“We see a very positive attitude to try to address this collective problem,” noted Dr. Ryan.
“We do not want to see intense transmission in a vulnerable population with an already weakened health system. It’s not good for the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, it’s not good for the region and it’s not good for the world,” he insisted.