The situation is serious because North Koreans have not been vaccinated and the country’s health care system is very weak. So far, North Korea has claimed there is no corona in the country.
The coronavirus is currently spreading strongly in North Korea. More than a million people are already feared suffering from coronary heart disease in a closed dictatorship of 26 million people.
According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, 1.2 million people suffered from fever today and more than half a million of them received medication. As of Friday, 350,000 people were reported ill.
There were 565,000 people in quarantine on Sunday.
Dictatorship officials have reported people suffering from fever, but have not confirmed that it is Korona. Testing capacity in North Korea is very limited.
About 50 people have been confirmed dead, but it is not known how many of them had given a positive corona test.
According to the World Health Organization, about 64,000 corona tests have been performed in North Korea during the pandemic. Rapid tests are probably only available to the elite.
Official figures must be viewed with suspicion
Official figures should be viewed with great caution. Professor at the University of Seoul, South Korea Yang Moo-Jin estimates in the news agency AP that the number of cases in North Korea is at least three times higher than the country has reported.
Yang bases his assessment on North Korea’s weak health care system, inadequate statistics and failure to report illnesses.
North Korea only admitted its first corona infection last week. Until then, the dictatorship had denied throughout the pandemic that there had been a single corona infection in the country.
However, international experts believe that the virus has been spreading in North Korea for a long time. At present, the coronavirus appears to be highly prevalent and contagious in the country.
A state of emergency was declared for North Korea
A state of emergency was declared in North Korea last week. The situation is also very difficult because it is known that North Koreans have not been given any corona vaccines at all.
North Korea has previously refused to accept vaccines provided to it by the World Health Organization and China. North Korea said it did not need vaccines because it had closed its borders.
China has promised North Korea help in the fight against the corona.
South Korea has also offered to send vaccines, drugs and health personnel to North Korea quickly if North Korea so requests.
Kim barked at the health authorities
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has barked at health authorities and ordered the military to help distribute medicines.
Kim has demanded state drug stocks to be distributed and pharmacies to keep their doors open around the clock.
On Saturday, Kim called the epidemic a huge disaster.
“The spread of the harmful epidemic is the biggest turmoil our country has faced since its inception,” Kim said, according to the North Korean news agency KCNA.
Kim made his statement after an emergency meeting of the country’s leadership on Saturday. In his TV appearance on Thursday, Kim reportedly used a face mask in public for the first time.
In addition to the lack of vaccines, the situation is exacerbated by a shortage of medicines and a weak health care system. Attempts are being made to slow down the corona epidemic by a corona closure imposed on the whole country.
The North Korean media has been advised to take painkillers for fever symptoms.
The corona epidemic is feared to exacerbate food shortages
Today, Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Korona could spread rapidly in North Korea. According to the WHO, the vaccination program has not yet started in the country.
WHO Regional Director for South East Asia Paanam Khetrapal Singh said the organization has not received direct information from the North Korean authorities about the severity of the corona epidemic.
In addition to morbidity, the corona epidemic is feared to affect food production.
The World Food Program has estimated that 11 million North Koreans suffer from malnutrition.
If farm workers do not get into the fields, the consequences, according to experts, are very serious in a poor country.