North Korea reports 220,000 new cases of COVID as Kim Jon-un claims 'positive progress'

North Korea on May 21, registered roughly 220,000 more people with feverish symptoms, even as leader Kim Jong-un claimed progress in reducing the spread of COVID-19 among the country's 26 million unvaccinated citizens. The outbreak has raised fears of catastrophic disasters in the impoverished, isolated country, which has one of the poorest health-care systems in the world and a high tolerance for civilian suffering.

However, on May 21, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that the country has "made positive progress" in battling the virus due to the party's leadership and the country's socialist system, NK News reported. Nevertheless, he also stated that numerous "issues" with the national response still persist. Moreover, experts believe North Korea is almost certainly misinterpreting the real figures of the viral outbreak, including an unexpectedly low death toll, in order to soften the political blow to Kim as he navigates the most difficult period of his decade-long rule.

According to the North's Korean Central News Agency, which credited the figure to the government's anti-virus headquarters, over 219,030 North Koreans with fevers were recognised in the 24 hours leading up to 6 p.m. on May 20. Since an unnamed fever began rapidly spreading in late April, North Korea claims more than 2.4 million people have become ill and 66 have died, albeit the country has only been able to identify a fraction of those instances as COVID-19 due to a paucity of testing supplies.

North Korea admitted to omicron cases this week

North Korea admitted to omicron infections this week, after claiming for two and a half years that it had perfectly barred the virus from entering its territory. Despite a lack of public health resources, the North has organised over a million health professionals to locate persons with fevers and place them in quarantine facilities. Kim also imposed stringent travel restrictions between cities and towns and recruited hundreds of troops to assist with the delivery of medicine to pharmacies in Pyongyang, the country's capital and the epicentre of the outbreak.

Kim stated during a ruling party Politburo meeting on May 21 that North Korea was beginning to manage the epidemic and asked for increased vigilance to continue the "positive trend" in the anti-virus effort, according to KCNA. However, Kim appeared to hint at easing his pandemic reaction in order to alleviate his economic troubles, urging authorities to actively adapt the country's preventive measures in response to changing virus conditions and to devise various methods to rebuild the national economy.

(With agency inputs)

Image: AP