North Korea revealed Friday a widespread outbreak of a fever that spread “explosively” across the country since the end of April, resulting in 350,000 cases and six deaths — including one that tested positive for COVID-19.
The news came a day after the state for the first time said it had a COVID-19 case within its borders, which prompted leader Kim Jong Un to order a lockdown of major cities and call for stringent measures to stop the virus. On Thursday alone, North Korea had 18,000 new cases of fever and as many as 187,800 people are being isolated and treated, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea didn’t explicitly say the new infections were from the coronavirus, but the public health crisis has dominated its state-controlled media over the past day. While experts long doubted that North Korea managed to keep out the pandemic that has swept the world since early 2020, Kim’s move this week to publicly acknowledge the outbreak suggests cases are too widespread for authorities to control.
