North Korea reports 1 million COVID19 cases in 3 days: Dooms day device setup by Kim Jong Un, nobody vaccinated
North Korea had isolated itself but, South Korea comes offers help.
All provinces, cities and counties of North Korea have been totally locked down and working units, production units and residential units closed from each other after eight new deaths and 392,920 more people with fever symptoms amid a growing COVID-19 outbreak, while the country earlier reported 820,620 cases on the weekend.
South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Monday the country will spare no effort to help North Korea, as the isolated nation battles a COVID-19 outbreak, and reiterated he will remain open for humanitarian aid.
The North's emergency anti-virus headquarters said more than 1.2 million people fell ill amid a rapid spread of fever since late April and about 564,860 are currently under quarantine.
North Koreans are likely to be especially vulnerable to the virus due to lack of vaccinations and a poor healthcare system. A nationwide lockdown is in place in the reclusive country.
State media said Mr Kim led an emergency politburo meeting at the weekend where he accused officials of bungling the distribution of the national medicine reserves.
He ordered that the "powerful forces" of the army's medical corps step in to "immediately stabilise the supply of medicines in Pyongyang City".
Despite activating its "maximum emergency quarantine system" to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population, North Korea is now reporting large numbers of new cases daily.
Its population of 26 million people is believed to be mostly unvaccinated after their government had shunned millions of shots offered by the UN-backed COVAX distribution program, likely over concerns related to international monitoring requirements.
North Korea's claim of a perfect record in keeping out the virus for 2 1/2 years was widely doubted. But its extremely strict border closure, large-scale quarantines and propaganda that stressed anti-virus controls as a matter of “national existence” may have staved off a huge outbreak until now.