In mid-August, ruler Kim Jong Un declared the epidemic of “fever” cases in North Korea over. Now four cases are registered again. These are apparently corona diseases. In the authoritarian state, however, there is hardly any testing capacity.
Two weeks after North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un declared the corona pandemic defeated, four new “fever” cases have occurred in the internationally isolated country. The diseases were reported on August 23 from Ryanggang province, which borders China, the state news agency KCNA reported, citing data from the state emergency center for epidemic prevention.
Those affected were infected in the course of the “malicious epidemic”, it said. In connection with the corona pandemic, North Korea speaks of “fever patients”, not of corona patients – apparently due to a lack of testing capacities.
Kim Jong Un announced a “brilliant victory” in the fight against the virus two weeks ago and ordered the restrictions to be largely lifted. No new cases had been reported since July 29.
North Korea sealed off its borders at the beginning of 2020 after the start of the pandemic to protect itself from the corona virus. Last May, the isolated communist country confirmed an outbreak of the omicron variant in the capital Pyongyang for the first time. According to KCNA, a total of 4.8 million “fever” sufferers were recorded, but only 74 of them died.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and other experts strongly question the North Korean corona statistics and the information on containing the pandemic. According to experts, the country has one of the worst health systems in the world.
