Six people victims of “fever” have died in North Korea, including one who tested positive for Covid-19, state media KCNA announced on Friday May 13, the day after the revelation of the first official case of coronavirus in the country. “A fever whose cause could not be identified spread explosively throughout the country from the end of April”, and “six people died, one of them tested positive for Omicron’s BA.2 sub-variant,” the official KCNA news agency reported. 187,800 people with fever are currently “isolated and treated”. More than 350,000 cases have been identified in the country, 18,000 for the single day of this Thursday, May 12.

Experts believe that if North Korea fails to curb the spread of the virus, there could be serious consequences for the country due to the failing health system, as well as low vaccination rates among the population.

The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un, criticized the “vulnerability of the epidemic prevention system”. He specified that the contaminations are concentrated, for the moment, in the region of the capital Pyongyang and its surroundings. Generalized confinement is in force in the communist country.

https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2022/05/13/covid-19-en-coree-du-nord-six-morts-de-fievre-187-000-personnes-isolees-et-soignees-selon-pyongyang_6125887_3244.html