North Korea yesterday said there were no new deaths among those with fever in the country, the first time since it flagged a COVID-19 outbreak nearly two weeks ago, adding that it was seeing a “stable” downward trend in cases.
The COVID-19 wave, which North Korea first declared on May 12, has fueled concerns over a lack of vaccines, inadequate medical infrastructure and a potential food crisis in the country of 25 million people.
However, North Korea said it was reporting “successes” in stemming the spread of COVID-19, and that there were no new fever deaths reported as of Monday evening, despite adding 134,510 new patients.
Photo: KCNA via Reuters
It marked a third consecutive day that the daily new case tally stayed below 200,000 and the first time for North Korea to report no new deaths since announcing the number of daily fever patients, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Lacking adequate testing supplies, North Korea has not confirmed the total number of people testing positive for COVID-19, instead reporting the number with fever symptoms.
The total number of such cases, tallied since late April, rose to 2.95 million, while the death toll stood at 68, KCNA reported.
Photo: KCNA via Reuters
“In a few days after the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system was activated, the nationwide morbidity and mortality rates have drastically decreased, and the number of recovered persons increased, resulting in effectively curbing and controlling the spread of the pandemic disease and maintaining the clearly stable situation,” KCNA said.
However, many analysts doubt the credibility of the figures, saying that they only demonstrate how difficult it is to assess the actual scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in isolated North Korea.
“Statistically, the daily announcement is hardly comparable to international standards and appears more aimed at the domestic audience,” Seoul National University College of Medicine professor Moon Jin-soo said, referring to North Korea’s reported fatality rate of 0.002 percent.
As of yesterday, South Korea’s COVID-19 fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.
South Korea is to issue a call this week at the World Economic Forum for COVID-19 vaccines and other medical help for the North, even if that means exemptions from UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear program, Na Kyung-won, a special envoy of the South Korean president, said yesterday, shortly before leaving for the forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Sending vaccines is a priority as the vaccination rate is believed to be near zero,” she added.
Na said she would discuss help for North Korea with Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“If direct support is not doable, we can participate in projects run by international organizations like the ICRC. We’ll take a pragmatic approach,” she said. “It’s concerning that if North Korea continues weapons provocations, it could hamper creating a positive sentiment in the international community.”
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