North Korea's Kim Orders Lockdown as First COVID-19 Outbreak Is Confirmed | Voice of America - Eunice Kim:
May 12, 2022 - "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a nationwide lockdown Thursday to try to contain a highly transmissible variant of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which was confirmed in the country this week for the first time. The official Korean Central News Agency [KCNA] said genetic sequencing analysis of samples collected from a group of people on Sunday in Pyongyang had identified the BA.2 strain, also known as the 'stealth omicron' for its relative difficulty of detection. At least one person confirmed to have COVID-19 has died, KCNA said Friday.... North Korea has maintained a strict border closure since February 2020 and instituted its own quarantine measures amid the pandemic, which have now officially been breached....
"Kim was seen wearing a mask for the first time at Thursday's early morning politburo meeting, which he took off only when addressing his masked aides. He ordered a 'thorough lockdown' in all cities and counties, KCNA said. He directed businesses and construction projects to continue to operate but in isolation to 'perfectly block' the spread of the virus.
"'They only have one option: simply lock down their country and try to prevent the spread of the omicron virus,' Park Won-gon, professor of North Korea studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told VOA. 'Because North Korea doesn’t have simple medicines, much less a medical system comparable to other countries, even if they had the vaccines, they would not be able to stop omicron.' Park doesn’t think North Korea will be looking to solicit vaccines from outside parties; what it really wants is a simple cure, which the world has yet to develop more than two years into the pandemic.
"North Korea will institute draconian measures to those of its biggest ally, China, if not even more severe, Park predicted. Based on several studies conducted on the contingency of North Korea, Park said, there was a single scenario that would incite a people’s uprising, and possibly the regime’s collapse: a pandemic paired with extreme economic difficulty. 'That is why, for more than two years, North Korea has been very sensitive and serious about this pandemic, even at the deep economic cost of closing its border with China.'"
Read more: https://www.voanews.com/a/north-korea-s-kim-orders-lockdown-as-first-covid-19-outbreak-is-confirmed/6569002.html
North Korea reports 21 new fever deaths amid country's 1st COVID-19 outbreak | CBC News - Associated Press:
May 14, 2022 - "North Korea on Saturday reported 21 new deaths and 174,440 more people with fever symptoms as the country scrambles to slow the spread of COVID-19 across its unvaccinated population. The new deaths and cases, which were from Friday, increased total numbers to 27 deaths and 524,440 illnesses amid a rapid spread of fever since late April.... North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a meeting on anti-virus strategies on Saturday described the outbreak as a historically 'great upheaval' and called ... for officials to take lessons from the successful pandemic responses of other nations and picked an example in China, the North's major ally. China, however, has been facing pressure to change its so-called 'zero-COVID' strategy that has brought major cities to a standstill as it struggles to slow the fast-moving omicron variant....
"Lacking vaccines, antiviral pills, intensive care units and other major health tools to fight the virus, North Korea's pandemic response will be mostly about isolating people with symptoms at designated shelters, experts say. North Korea doesn't have technological and other resources to impose extreme lockdowns like China, which has shut down entire cities and confined residents to their homes, nor could it afford to do so at the risk of unleashing further shock on a fragile economy, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification....
"North Korea has a higher tolerance for civilian suffering than most other nations and some experts say the country could be willing to accept a certain level of fatalities to gain immunity through infection, rather than receiving vaccines and other outside help."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/north-korea-covid-19-outbreak-fever-deaths-1.6453303
North Korea's suspected COVID-19 caseload nears 2-million mark | CBC News - Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press:
May 18, 2022 - "North Korea on Thursday reported 262,270 more cases of people with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 as its pandemic caseload neared two million — a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak and scrambled to slow infections in its unvaccinated population. The country is also trying to prevent its fragile economy from deteriorating, but the outbreak could be worse than officially reported since the country lacks virus tests and other health-care resources and may be underreporting deaths....
"North Korea's antivirus headquarters reported a single additional death, raising its death toll to 63, which experts have said is abnormally small compared to the suspected number of coronavirus infections. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that more than 1.98 million people have become sick with fever since late April. Most are believed to have COVID-19, though only a few Omicron variant infections have been confirmed. At least 740,160 people are in quarantine, the news agency reported.... Workers were mobilized to find people with suspected COVID-19 symptoms who were then sent to quarantine — the main method of curbing the outbreak since North Korea is short of medical supplies and intensive care units that lowered COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in other nations."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/north-korea-covid-outbreak-infections-1.6458803
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