North Korea on Saturday reported no fever cases for the first time in more than two months since it confirmed its first Covid-19 infections in May.
“No new fever patients were reported” for a 24-hour period as of Thursday evening, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, marking the first time the isolated country had not reported any new cases since it started counting the numbers in May started.
Though it has maintained a rigid coronavirus lockdown since the pandemic began, experts said massive omicron outbreaks in neighboring countries meant it was only a matter of time before Covid crept in.
North Korea has registered nearly 4.8 million infections since the end of April, KCNA said, adding “99.994 percent” of them have fully recovered, with only 204 patients treated.
Apparently due to a lack of testing capacity, North Korea speaks more of “fever patients” than “Covid patients” in case reports.
The country has one of the worst healthcare systems in the world, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units and no drugs to treat Covid-19 or facilities for mass testing, experts say.
Pyongyang announced its first coronavirus cases on May 12 and activated a “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system,” with leader Kim Jong Un placing himself at the center of the government’s response.
North Korea has not vaccinated any of its approximately 25 million people as it has turned down vaccinations offered by the World Health Organization.
The North said in late May it was seeing “progress” in controlling the outbreak, but experts have cast doubt on the claim, citing the country’s crumbling health infrastructure and unvaccinated population.
The WHO’s director of emergencies, Michael Ryan, said last month he expected the situation in North Korea to be “worsening, not better,” although he acknowledged that Pyongyang had provided very limited information.
South Korea had previously offered to send vaccines and other medical supplies to the North to help it deal with its coronavirus outbreak.
Pyongyang has not officially responded.
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