SEOUL: North Korea reported zero fever cases Friday for a seventh straight day, state media said, adding that everyone who had fallen sick since the country confirmed its first COVID-19 infections had recovered.
The isolated country, which has maintained a rigid coronavirus blockade since the start of the pandemic, announced an omicron outbreak in the capital Pyongyang in May and activated a “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system.”
State media have meticulously reported the official number of cases, deaths, treatments and recoveries every day since, with leader Kim Jong Un putting himself front and center of the government’s response.
North Korea refers to “fever patients” rather than “COVID-19 patients” in case reports, apparently due to a lack of testing capacity.
“No new fever cases were reported during the past week and all those receiving treatment have recovered across the country,” the official KCNA reported Friday.
“The overall anti-epidemic situation of the DPRK has entered a definite phase of stability,” the report added.
The country will continue to strengthen its monitoring of “new COVID-19 sub-variants and various diseases” and can still mobilize medical workers “in case of a crisis,” it added.
North Korea has recorded nearly 4.8 million infections since late April with just 74 deaths for an official fatality rate of 0.002 percent, KCNA has reported.
The country has one of the world’s worst health care systems, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units, and no COVID-19 treatment drugs or vaccines, experts say.
In contrast, South Korea — with its advanced health care systems and highly vaccinated population — has a reported COVID-19 fatality rate of 0.12 percent, according to official data.
“It is hard to believe any country if they say that the confirmed number of patients has suddenly gone to zero,” Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, said.
“Like its military weapons and nuclear programs, it seems right to say that COVID is also being used to highlight Kim Jong Un’s leadership and shore up loyalty, regardless of what the truth is.”
Pyongyang said in late May it had started seeing “progress” in controlling the outbreak but experts, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly cast doubt on the claim.
North Korea is not believed to have vaccinated any of its roughly 25 million people, having rejected jabs offered by the WHO’s Covax program.
The Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported that North Korea imported 3,554 invasive ventilators from China in June, sharply up from April, despite an overall decrease in trade.
But Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said that Pyongyang’s claim to have brought the epidemic under control seemed “somewhat reliable.”
Things could be getting back to normal as “there are no signs of tighter border control, no official request has been made to Beijing for medical aid or equipment, and Pyongyang-based diplomats remain in place,” he said.
North Korea: ‘All recovered’ after COVID-19 outbreak
https://arab.news/494mj
North Korea: ‘All recovered’ after COVID-19 outbreak
- Isolated country has maintained a rigid coronavirus blockade since the start of the pandemic
- North Korea refers to ‘fever patients’ rather than ‘COVID-19 patients’ in case reports
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
