More than two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the covid-19 disease a global pandemic, North Korea reported its first case of the coronavirus. Faced with this pioneering contagion, according to the country’s health authorities, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared a state of “maximum emergency” and has established “maximum” response measures against the disease.
As reported by the KNCA agency, Kim stressed that “thanks to the high political awareness of the people, the country will surely overcome the emergency” in the first outbreak since North Korea closed its borders in early 2020. Since then, famines, economic losses, food shortages have been reported… but never a single case of coronavirus, until this Thursday.
This Friday, a day later, the North Korean authorities reported that six people have died from the pathogen and that 18,000 people are infected. Beyond this, North Korea is one of only two countries in the world that have not yet vaccinated their population against the disease. They added that at the moment some 187,000 people have been quarantined and undergoing treatment, and that one of the deceased persons has tested positive for the omicron BA.2 subvariant of the virus.
Neighboring territory South Korea has offered to send coronavirus vaccines to North Korea to deal with the recent outbreak that has put the country on “high alert,” according to South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol.
“President Yoon Suk Yeol plans to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the North Korean people, as well as other medical supplies,” presidential spokesman Kang In Sun said in a statement. Kim himself urged at a politburo meeting “all cities and counties in the country to completely confine their areas” without in turn neglecting the agricultural and production centers of the impoverished state.
US President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Seoul next week amid repeated weapons tests. Despite this, Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the White House, indicated that the US has no “intention” to send vaccines to the North Korean country. Psaki also insisted that Pyongyang, which hours after announcing its first cases of COVID-19 launched short-range missiles on Thursday, is preparing, as satellites show, to carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017 and that this test could be carried out this month, as indicated last week by the Secretary of State.
Along with North Korea, Eritrea is the other country that has not yet reported having given a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The African country, under President and strongman Isaias Afwerki, has turned down repeated requests from other African nations to join Covax, the WHO-backed global vaccination effort.
Some activists say the country is plagued by propaganda that paints Covax as a Western tool to destroy Africa. Eritrea has confirmed some 10,000 confirmed cases, as well as 103 deaths.
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