Covid caseload nears 2m

North Korea yesterday reported 262,270 more cases of people with suspected symptoms of Covid-19, as its pandemic caseload neared two million, just a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak. North Korea’s anti-virus headquarters reported just a single death to bring its toll to 63, which experts have said is abnormally small compared to the suspected number of infections. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has mobilised more than a million workers to find and quarantine people with fevers and other suspected Covid-19 symptoms. But large groups of workers continue to gather at farms, mining facilities, power stations and construction sites to spur production, because Kimhas demanded that economic goals must bemet, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.