North Korea confirms first Covid case, more than two years since the pandemic began

AFTER allegedly holding the pandemic at bay for more than two years, North Korea confirmed on Thursday, May 12 the country’s first case of Covid.

According to Korean media reports, following the discovery of the first Covid case from patient samples, top government officials have declared it a ‘severe national emergency incident’ with leader Kim Jong-un proposing a ‘maximum emergency’ virus control system to tackle the ‘outbreak’.

State-run KCNA news agency said that the goal of North Korea’s Supreme Leader “was to eliminate the root within the shortest period of time.”

“He assured us that because of the people’s high political awareness … we will surely overcome the emergency and win the emergency quarantine project,” it said.

Samples were taken from sick patients in Pyongyang on Sunday, May 8, and following tests, the virus was most closely likened to the Covid variant, Omicron.

According to KCNA, the country’s leader has told its citizens “to completely block the spread of the malicious virus by thoroughly blocking their areas in all cities and counties across the country”.

Prior to the country’s first case of the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had stated that after conducting 13,259 Covid-19 tests by the end of 2020, no positive tests were registered.

The news of North Korea’s first-ever case of the virus comes after it was revealed on Thursday, May 12 that the death toll as a result of Covid has passed more than two million in Europe, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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