N Korea fights to contain Omicron

North Korea has announced its first Covid-19 death and confirmed more than 187,000 people were being “isolated and treated” for fever as the virus spread all across the shuttered nation.

“A fever whose cause couldn’t be identified explosively spread nationwide from late April,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“Six persons died (one of them tested positive for the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron,)” it added.

The isolated country confirmed its first-ever cases of Covid on Thursday, saying it was moving into “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” after sick patients in the capital Pyongyang tested positive for Omicron.

“On May 12 alone, some 18,000 persons with fever occurred nationwide and as of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated and treated,” KCNA reported.

With its 25 million people not vaccinated against Covid, North Korea’s crumbling health infrastructure would struggle to deal with a major outbreak, experts say.

Leader Kim Jong-un oversaw an emergency meeting of the Politburo and ordered nationwide lockdowns in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.

KCNA said Kim visited the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters and “learned about the nationwide spread of Covid-19”.

“It is the most important challenge and supreme tasks facing our party to reverse the immediate public health crisis situation at an early date,” KCNA added.

North Korea has turned down offers of Covid vaccines from the World Health Organisation, China and Russia.

It is surrounded by countries that are still fighting to control significant Omicronfuelled outbreaks. South Korea, which has high rates of vaccination, has recently eased almost all Covid restrictions, with cases sharply down after a spike in March. China, the world’s only major economy to still maintain a zero-Covid policy, has multiple outbreaks.