According to official information on Wednesday, almost 233,000 new infections had been reported and another 6 deaths. Thus, more than 1.7 million inhabitants of the closed country would have been infected since April, with 62 reported deaths.
Foreign observers, among them the WHO, question the data on both the number of deaths and the many recovered, as North Korea lacks vaccines and extensive medical care.
The WHO and its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also say that North Korea does not heed calls to provide more detailed information about the outbreak. The country has also turned down offers of vaccines and international aid.
Risk of mutations
The rapid spread of an unvaccinated population can pose a global problem: the coronavirus is mutating.
Michael Ryan, WHO’s head of crisis preparedness, says that a completely uncontrolled spread of the virus can lead to new variants. He emphasizes that the WHO lacks opportunities to control mutations of the virus if a country does not want to cooperate.
Only North Korea and Eritrea have completely refused vaccine doses distributed through UN-supported Covax, as well as outside technical and medical support.
On Sunday, leader Kim Jong Un ordered all paramedics in the Korean army to take to the streets to fight the covid-19 outbreak.
See the North Korean army marching on the streets of Pyongyang in the video above.