North Korean leader Kim Jong-un yesterday said that the spread of COVID-19 had thrust his country into “great turmoil” and called for an all-out battle to overcome the outbreak, while 21 new daily deaths were reported among people with a fever.
North Korea made an unprecedented admission of having a COVID-19 outbreak this week and imposed a nationwide lockdown, after reporting no cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago.
“The spread of the malignant epidemic is a great turmoil to fall on our country since the founding,” state news agency KCNA quoted Kim as telling an emergency meeting of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
“But if we don’t lose focus in implementing epidemic policy ... we can more than overcome the crisis,” he was quoted as saying.
The Workers’ Party meeting heard reports of about 280,810 people being treated and 27 deaths since a fever of unidentified origins was reported starting in late April, KCNA said.
State media did not say whether the new deaths were due to COVID-19.
KCNA said on Friday that one death was due to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The meeting also heard a report from epidemic control officials that “in most cases, human casualties were caused by negligence including drug overdose due to lack of knowledge of treatment methods,” KCNA said.
Kim also said that health officials must learn from the experience of other advanced countries, including China’s accomplishments in fighting the epidemic, KCNA said.
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