COVID – Twenty-one more deaths from “fever” have emerged in North Korea, which reported more than half a million patients on Saturday May 14, two days after the official announcement of the first-ever case of Covid-19.
“The number of people with a fever exceeded 524,440 between the end of April and May 13,” according to state news agency KCNA, which reported a total of 27 deaths.
This reclusive country of 25 million announced its first cases of coronavirus on Thursday and said it was moving to a regime of “maximum emergency epidemic prevention” — implying containment measures — after people tested positive for Omicron subvariant BA. 2. He had also announced his first death.
Lack of screening capacity
As of Friday alone, “more than 174,440 people developed fevers, at least 81,430 have fully recovered and 21 have died,” KCNA reported.
It is not specified whether these new cases and deaths have all tested positive for Covid-19, but experts say the country is unable to test its population on a massive scale.
“It is no exaggeration to think that these ‘fever’ cases are all coronavirus cases given the lack of testing capacity,” said Cheong Seong-chang, North Korea specialist at the Sejong Institute. “The actual number of Covid cases could be higher than the numbers showing people with fever because of many asymptomatic cases,” he said.
The official press said these initial deaths were “due to negligence, including drug overdose, due to ignorance of scientific treatment methods.”
“Minimize human losses”
North Korea, which became one of the first countries in the world to shut its borders in January 2020 after the virus emerged in neighboring China, has long boasted of its ability to keep the virus at bay. It had previously reported no confirmed cases of Covid-19 to the WHO.
Leader Kim made his first televised appearance wearing a mask after he chaired an emergency Politburo meeting on the epidemic situation on Thursday. He then ordered containment measures to stop the spread of the virus.
A second Politburo meeting was held on Saturday, at which the chairman conceded that “the spread of a malignant disease will shake our country,” according to KCNA.
He promised a “rapid distribution of emergency medicines” and assured that he would introduce “treatment methods for patients, including those with special constitutions” in order to “minimize human losses”. He is “convinced” that he can “defeat this vicious infectious disease as soon as possible,” the agency added.
But the country’s health system – one of the worst in the world – is in shambles and missing essential medicines and equipment, experts warn. Kim announced that he would adopt the Chinese model for fighting the coronavirus. “We should learn from the successful experiences and achievements of the Chinese Communist Party and its people in preventing the virus,” he said.
Delivery from China
However, China, the only major economy in the world to maintain a zero-Covid policy, has grappled with multiple outbreaks of omicron despite strict lockdowns and massive testing across the country.
Another huge challenge for North Korea: None of the 25 million inhabitants have been vaccinated against the corona virus, Pyongyang has rejected vaccination offers from the WHO, China and Russia. Beijing offered aid to South Korea on Thursday, and Seoul offered to send vaccines on Friday.
According to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, the leader’s remarks also suggest that he will “try to source from China.”
More nuclear weapons
Despite that outbreak, new satellite images show North Korea has restarted construction of a long-stalled nuclear reactor.
“I can’t tell you when the reactor will be operational, but it is about 10 times larger than the existing reactor at Yongbyon,” Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute in California wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
“It would produce 10 times more plutonium for nuclear weapons,” he claimed, adding “it would fulfill Kim’s promise to increase the number of nuclear weapons” she possesses.
The United States and South Korea recently claimed that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct another nuclear test imminently.
For analysts, Kim could do it faster than expected to divert popular attention from the epidemic situation.
See also on The HuffPost: Despite “zero-Covid” detection, North Korean television does not skimp on prevention