‘First’ virus cases put North Korea on high alert
Kim orders lockdown to contain Covid-19 in country with possibly no vaccine shots yet
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered all cities to be put under lockdown after the state for the first time yesterday said it had Covid-19 infections within its borders.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said tests from an unspecified number of people in the capital Pyongyang confirmed they were infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. “A serious situation has been created due to the introduction of a stealth Omicron mutant virus into our precincts,” KCNA said. At a party meeting yesterday attended by Kim, authorities elevated the country’s national quarantine measures to “maximum emergency”, it added.
Kim ordered “all cities and counties across the country to thoroughly lock down their areas”, so as to “completely block the transmission of [a] malicious virus”, according to KCNA.
Until yesterday, Kim’s regime had denied the country had any Covid-19 cases, a claim doubted by experts in the United States, Japan and other countries.
Pyongyang has also refused vaccines from the outside world, with reports saying planned shipments have been put on hold because North Korea was unwilling to follow rules by the Covax Facility, a global initiative backed by the World Health Organization.
In August 2020, North Korea said it was pushing ahead with the development of a vaccine against the virus, but has since given scant details of vaccines.
Any Covid-19 outbreak in North Korea, if widespread, could potentially be devastating given the country has an antiquated healthcare system and possibly no vaccines.
The outbreak may also help answer a question about the severity of the highly infectious Omicron variant that is currently circumventing the world.
Scientists are split over whether the strain is less dangerous than the original pathogen that was first reported in Wuhan in late 2019, or whether vaccinations and immunity from previous infections have neutered its impact.