AFP
–
NOS News•today, 08:01
—
The end of the corona outbreak in North Korea is near, state news agency KCNA reports. The country is on track to “finally defuse” the crisis. Experts question it.
–
North Korea states that 99.98 percent of the 4.77 million “fever patients” reported since late April have made a full recovery, but no data was shown to support that claim. This is probably because there is hardly any testing for the virus.
–
The hermetically sealed country claimed to have kept the virus at bay for a long time. Until last spring, when it was admitted for the first time that North Korea was dealing with an outbreak of the virus. Leader Kim Jong-un immediately declared a state of emergency and a nationwide lockdown after the first infection.
–
Correspondent Sjoerd den Daas made this report last week from the South Korean border town of Ganghwa, where tourists try to get a glimpse of the corona situation in North Korea:
–
–
Peeping at the neighbours: South Koreans look across the border with a telescope
—
Few people have been vaccinated in the country because it refused help from other countries for a large-scale vaccination campaign. Also, very few people are tested. Still, North Korea says it has a good overview of the virus.
–
“Intensive medical checks” are being done throughout the country, according to the state news agency. And new methods would also be developed with which the virus and possible new variants, but also other infectious diseases, such as monkey pox, can be detected.
–
Doubts at WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) questions the news. Just last month there was fear that things were getting worse rather than better. That fear was mainly because there are no independent figures about the corona outbreak in North Korea.
–
In addition, more infections have been reported recently in neighboring countries. In China, there were nearly 700 on Saturday, the highest number since May 23. In South Korea, experts expect hundreds of thousands of new cases every week for the foreseeable future. And nearly 17,000 infections were diagnosed in the Japanese capital Tokyo last Wednesday, the highest number since February.
–
—
