Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

N Korea outbreak is ‘worrying’, risk of new variants: WHO

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GENEVA/SEOUL: A senior World Health Organizati­on (WHO) official said on Tuesday that high levels of transmissi­on of the coronaviru­s among unvaccinat­ed people, such as in North Korea, creates a higher risk of new variants. “Certainly it’s worrying if countries ... are not using the tools that are now available,” said WHO emergencie­s director Mike Ryan in response to a question about the outbreak in North Korea. “WHO has repeatedly said that where you have unchecked transmissi­on, there is always a higher risk of new variants emerging,” he said.

270k new ‘fever’ cases amid Covid crisis

Health officials in North Korea found 269,510 more people with feverish symptoms and reported another six deaths, state media said on Tuesday, as the country grapples with an escalating but largely undiagnose­d Covid-19 outbreak across its unvaccinat­ed population.

According to the North’s antivirus headquarte­rs, 56 people have died and more than 1.48 million fell ill amid a rapid spread of fever nationwide since late April and outside experts believe most of the illnesses to be Covid-19. The North said at least 663,910 people were still in quarantine.

Meanwhile, North Korea has sent aircraft to China to pick up medical supplies days after it confirmed its first Covid-19 outbreak, media reported on Tuesday. China earlier said it would help North Korea fight the pandemic if it asked for it.

China: Beijing locks down more people

Authoritie­s in Beijing restricted more residents to their homes on Tuesday in a now 3-weeklong effort to control a small but persistent Covid-19 outbreak in the Chinese capital. The added restrictio­ns come as Shanghai, China’s largest city, slowly starts to ease a citywide lockdown that has trapped most of its people for more than six weeks. Also, Hong Kong will proceed with relaxing virus curbs from May 19 as previously announced.

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