North Korea praises recovery because WHO is concerned about lost data

North Korea said on Wednesday that more than a million people had already recovered from the suspected COVID-19 just a week after experts around the world expressed deep concern about the threat to public health. The headquarters on Wednesday announced 232,880 new cases of fever and six more deaths in state media. The figures show a total of 62 deaths and more than 1.7 million cases of fever since the end of April. It said at least 691,160 people were in quarantine.

External experts believe that most fevers are COVID-19 but many in North Korea lack testing to confirm. The prevalence is almost certainly higher than the number of fevers, since the virus can be carried and spread by people who do not develop fever or other symptoms. It is also unclear how more than ten million people recovered so quickly when limited medicine, medical equipment and health facilities existed to treat the country’s 26 million poor, immunized population. Some experts say that northern people can be released from quarantine only after their fever subsides.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed approximately 6.3 million people, with the actual number believed to be much higher. Countries have confirmed thousands of deaths each, with North Korea having an outbreak equal to the number of official fevers. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanam Ghebreissas said Tuesday that North Korea had not responded to his request for more information on its outbreak.

Before acknowledging the COVID-19 infection for the first time last week, North Korea made a widely dubious claim to keep the virus at bay. It has also avoided the millions of vaccine shots provided by the UN-backed COVAX distribution program, possibly due to the need for international monitoring attached to them. North Korea and Eritrea are the only sovereign UN member states that have not developed vaccines, but Tedros said no country has responded to the WHO’s offer of vaccines, drugs, testing and technical assistance.

“The WHO (North Korea) is deeply concerned about the risk of further outbreaks,” Tedros said. WHO emergency chief said. Michael Ryan said that uncontrolled transmission of the virus could lead to new forms, but that the WHO was powerless to act if countries did not accept its help.

The North has so far ignored rival South Korea’s offer to supply vaccines, medicines and health workers, but experts say the North may be more willing to accept help from its main ally China. The South Korean government has said it could not confirm media reports that North Korea flew multiple planes on Tuesday to bring back emergency supplies from China.

During a meeting of the ruling party’s politburo on Tuesday, North Korean officials expressed confidence that the country could overcome the crisis on its own.

It is suspected that North Korea is reporting fewer deaths to soften the blow for Kim, who is already navigating the most difficult moment in a decade in his power. The epidemic has further damaged the economy, which has already collapsed due to mismanagement of Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile development and US-led sanctions. At the Politburo meeting, Kim criticized officials for their initial epidemic response, which he said was “with crisis” in tackling the state’s capacity immaturity and he blamed their “non-positive attitude, laxity and inaction” for the country’s weakness. He called on the authorities to do more to strengthen the control of the virus in the workplace and to improve the supply of daily necessities and to stabilize the living conditions, the report said.

North Korea has deployed about 3,000 military medical officers to assist in the supply of medicines to pharmacies and has deployed public health officers, teachers and students studying healthcare to identify people with fever so that they can be isolated. The country relies on finding people with symptoms to isolate them in shelters because it lacks vaccines, high-tech drugs and equipment, and intensive care units that have reduced hospital admissions and deaths in other countries.

While raising concerns about the outbreak, Kim stressed that his economic goals should be met. State media reports show that large groups of workers are gathering at farms, mining facilities, power stations and construction sites to ensure that their work is carried out as scheduled. The North Korean COVID-19 outbreak came amid a provocative arms race, the first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in nearly five years, aimed at forcing the United States to adopt the North’s concept of nuclear power. Discuss economic and security concessions from the power position.

U.S. and South Korean officials also believe North Korea could detonate its seventh nuclear test this month. During Tuesday’s meeting, Kim reaffirmed that he would “again wake up the whole party like an (active) volcano in a state of emergency” to prove his leadership in the face of history and time, and to “defend and demonstrate the well-being of the country and its people Korea’s strength and consciousness, “KCNA said. The report did not directly mention a large arms test.

Recent commercial satellite images of the nuclear test site in Pungi-ri indicate repair work and preparation for a still-unused tunnel south of the site, possibly nearing completion, according to an analysis released by Beyond on Tuesday, the Washington-based Center for A website run by Strategic and International Studies.