May 15, 2022, 07:31am
The country reported 15 new Covid-19 deaths and hundreds of thousands of new patients withfevers, as it said it has mobilized millions of health and other workers to fight its first officially acknowledged coronaviruses outbreak.
People watch a TV screen showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The country's official case count was pushed to over 800 thousand by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
After North Korea reported its first-ever Covid-19 outbreak on Thursday, there was a huge surge in new cases.
42 deaths have been reported by North Korea since the beginning of the current outbreak.
The country's public health system is in a poor state and most of its residents are believed to be unvaccinated, which has raised concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe.
All provinces, cities and counties of the country have been locked down and residential units have been isolated to help fight the outbreak.
According to the state media outlet, nearly 1.35 million workers have been sent to help deal with the current outbreak.
347,450. The total number of people who are still being treated for the disease is more than half a million.
The country of North Korea reported a Covid-19 outbreak fueled by the highly infectious BA.2 omicron variant. This was the first time that Pyongyang acknowledged a Covid-19 outbreak inside its borders, however, experts have raised doubts about its earlier claims. The official disclosure was seen as a sign that North Korea may be looking for help to tackle the outbreak which threatens to quickly overwhelm its healthcare system. The country had previously refused to accept vaccines offered to it as part of the U.N. backed COVAX program.
North Korea doesn't have the capacity to conduct large scale testing, which may be needed to curb the outbreak. It is very likely that a lot of cases are not being reported because of the lack of large scale testing. The halt of work in factories and farm lands appears to have not resulted in the spread of the disease.
There are 15 more suspected COVID-19 deaths in North Korea.
The first Covid-19 outbreak has been reported by North Korea.
There is a disease outbreak in North Korea.
Live updates on the coronaviruses.
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