On Thursday, the World Health Organization expressed its regret that it was not able to access data on the spread of the Covid-19 virus in North Korea and that Pyongyang did not cooperate with it, noting that the epidemiological situation in this country is likely to deteriorate, contrary to the reassurances spread by the Stalinist regime.
And North Korea, which announced the registration of the first case of “Covid” on May 12, said last week that the epidemic had been brought under control, while state media reported a decrease in the number of new infections.
But the director of emergencies at the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan, questioned this information, telling reporters, “We believe that the situation is getting worse and not improved,” acknowledging that North Korea, which is closed in on itself, provided only very limited information.
He added, “At the moment, we are not in a position to make a proper assessment of the gravity of the situation on the ground,” noting that “it is very difficult to provide a proper analysis of the world when we do not have access to the necessary data.”
For its part, WHO official in charge of combating Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, said that the country had recorded about 3.7 million suspected cases, although the official toll referred only to cases of “fever”.
And Thursday, the official Korean News Agency announced that the number of new cases of “fever” during the past 24 hours reached 96,610 people, compared to 390,000 daily infections that the country recorded in early May.
The total official outcome of this “fever” is more than 3.8 million injuries and 69 deaths.
And North Korea, which has one of the worst health systems in the world, did not immunize its population of about 25 million after it refused vaccines provided by the World Health Organization.