North Korea says 'unknown fever' now 'under control' after country's first COVID outbreak

Nearly two weeks days after North Korea acknowledged the COVID-19 outbreak, the country said that the situation was now ''under control''. According to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the country has shown a downward trend in the "unconfirmed fever" cases and recorded less than two lakh cases on Tuesday. The media report said that country reported 1,67,650 cases of fever in the past 24 hours.

"In a few days after the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system was activated, the nation-wide 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," it said in the report.

The major revelation of the outbreak came after an unspecified number of people who were suffering from fevers in the national capital, Pyongyang, was tested for the COVID-19 virus. Pyongyang's health ministry confirmed that the infected were suffering from the deadly Omicron variant. In response, the country's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un called a Politburo meeting and announced a nationwide lockdown, starting from Thursday, May 12.

According to the lockdown norms, workplaces should be isolated by units to block the virus from spreading. Also, the supreme leader urged health workers to step up disinfection efforts at workplaces and homes. It is worth mentioning that the Supreme leader on several occasions had bolstered the country's strict measures in dealing with the COVID virus.

According to an earlier statement of the country's boss, he had managed to weed out the deadly pandemic from the country. However, the 'philosophy' of the leader changed last week as he insisted that the arrest of the virus is crucial and vowed his confidence in overcoming the outbreak. The leader said he believes his government and people are “united as one.” He called the health workers to disinfect marketplaces as soon as possible while maintaining paramount importance to inconveniences to the public. 

Kim wears mask for the first time after invoking an emergency in North Korea

It is worth mentioning that this was the first time when North Korea acknowledged the scale of virus transmission in the country since COVID-19 engulfed the planet. However, the actual figures were not immediately known. Also, it is believed that the leader has not implemented the proper vaccination module in the country, resulting in fear among the international health agencies. Despite this, the leader has rejected jabs offered by the World Health Organization.