North Korea may change the current pandemic restrictions as management claims that the covid-19 outbreak in the country is losing momentum – something that is, however, a strongly questioned statement.
According to the state news agency KCNA, the contagion situation was discussed at a meeting on Sunday, where the country’s dictator Kim Jong Un and other high-ranking officials participated, and where it was stated that “the pandemic situation is under control and improved throughout the country.”
North Korea officially confirmed its first case of covid-19 in May this year, this led to a national shutdown where work teams are isolated from each other in workplaces and travel between different regions is banned.
On Sunday, North Korea reported 89,500 more patients with “fever symptoms”, which means that a total of 3.4 million people in the country have now fallen ill. There is no new information on death rates. The latest figures are from last Friday, when a total of 69 deaths were reported.
Experts estimate that North Korea greatly underestimates the death toll to protect leader Kim Jong Un from suffering political damage. The assessment is that significantly more people should have died, as large parts of the country’s population are unvaccinated and the care of seriously ill deficiencies. At the same time, other experts point out that the management may have exaggerated the infection rates in order to strengthen control over the population.