North Korea on Wednesday reported another six deaths apparently linked to covid-19 and 232,880 new potential cases a week after confirming the detection of the virus for the first time, while leader Kim Jong-un criticized negligence in the initial response to the health emergency.
(You might be interested in: North Korea: how is your health system doing to deal with covid-19?)
The total number of deaths amounts to 62, reported the KCNA news agency, which spoke of 1.71 million cases of “fever” (North Korea barely has the capacity to test) since the virus began to spread, according to the regime. , at the end of April, with 1.02 million people recovered and some 691,170 still under treatment.
(You might be interested in: 3 keys to understanding the explosion of covid-19 cases in North Korea)
The situation in the impoverished country is worrying because of how contagious the detected omicron subvariant has proven to be and due to the fact that the regime has not put out a single vaccine, it rejected the donation of almost five million doses in 2021 and does not seem to have the intention of designing a national inoculation plan yet.
The data, in fact, reflect a very rapid transmission throughout the country (almost 7% of the population seems to have been infected in less than a month), with special incidence in the capital, Pyongyang, and in municipalities with high economic activity and logistics links such as Nampo (west), Kaesong (south) or Rason (northeast).
The latest data indicates that almost 40% of deaths correspond to those over 60 years of age, although in turn almost a third of the deceased are under 20 years of age.
How did the virus get in?
Now, many are wondering how the virus entered the Asian country, after two years in which North Korea claimed to have managed to stop the spread of covid-19.
Well, according to an expert in intelligence and relations between North Korea and China, the limited opening of the country could facilitate a first entry of the virus.
“North Korea opened the border town of Sinuiju on the Yalu River in January, and materials and people began to enter from China, as Pyongyang had requested help due to the dire economic situation after two years of closure,” said Professor Nam Sung- wook from Korea University in Seoul in the middle BBC World.
For his part, Andrés Sánchez Braun, correspondent for Agencia EFE in Seoul, considered two other possibilities.
The first is that it came from “asymptomatic people who have participated in the permitted trade routes with China (rail and high seas)” somehow circumventing the exhaustive disinfection processes.
The other hypothesis is that some smuggler brought the virus to North Korea, whose 1,416 km border with China was heavily frequented – until the pandemic – by merchants crossing the Yalu River.
For its part, the South Korean government said Wednesday that the regime ignored, for the third day, its communication to meet and discuss sending unconditional aid that Seoul has promised.
Various media outlets have reported North Korean planes loading supplies at Chinese airports, while Moscow and Pyongyang directly discussed sending aid.
Many experts believe, however, that North Korea, which has been tightly closed since 2020, will not accept the shipment of vaccines because it implies receiving external personnel to advise on cold chains.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Eph.
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