Status: 05/12/2022 04:12 AM
North Korea has reported its first official outbreak of the coronavirus since the outbreak began. Governor Kim wants to “eliminate the outbreak in the shortest possible time” and has ordered the “maximum” quarantine protocol.
Internationally isolated North Korea has reported its first coronavirus outbreak since the epidemic began more than two years ago. The official Central News Agency said it was a “severe national emergency”.
Accordingly, samples from patients who developed a fever in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday matched the highly contagious omicron variant.
Kim arranged ‘maximum’ quarantine protocol
According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said at an emergency meeting of the Politburo that the country will enter a “maximum” quarantine protocol to contain the outbreak. The goal is to “eliminate the root in the shortest possible time”.
Kim added that North Korea “will definitely overcome the emergency and win the emergency quarantine project due to the people’s high level of political awareness.” Kim called for tighter border controls and lockdown measures.
Isolated since late 2020
According to the Central News Agency, the Crown Prince urged citizens to “completely prevent the spread of the evil virus by completely closing their areas in all cities and provinces across the country.” All economic activities will be organized in such a way as to “isolate” each production unit to prevent the spread of disease.
The country went into lockdown in early 2020 to protect itself from the pandemic. As of Thursday, North Korea had not confirmed any cases of Covid-19. According to the World Health Organization, North Korea had conducted 13,259 tests for Covid-19 by the end of 2020, all of which came back negative. Analysts say North Korea’s health care system will struggle to deal with a major virus outbreak.