The health crisis will not ultimately have spared North Korea. Fifteen new deaths due to “fever” were registered on Sunday, May 15, just three days after the official announcement of the first-ever case of Covid-19 in the country, the official KCNA news agency said. The toll therefore rises to a total of 42 dead, while 820,620 cases of “fever” were reported (compared to 524,440 the previous day), of which at least 324,550 required medical treatment.
>> What we know about the health situation in North Korea, which has just declared its first deaths linked to the disease
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un admitted the day before that a “malignant disease” provoked “a great upheaval” in the country. “All provinces, cities and counties in the country have been completely locked down and workplaces, production centers and residences have been isolated from each other”reported KCNA.
And the epidemic is likely to do heavy damage. Because although it has urgently activated its quarantine system to stop the spread of the disease, none of the 25 million inhabitants is vaccinated.