Three months after the first confirmation of a coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, the country says it has defeated the virus. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared victory in the battle to eradicate the new coronavirus on Wednesday at a national meeting on measures to combat the epidemic in Pyongyang, State media reported Thursday, transmits MIA.
Kim was quoted as saying the campaign against the virus was over but that North Korea must remain vigilant and effectively monitor border areas.
The country has not reported any illness or suspected cases related to the outbreak for nearly two weeks. It is unclear how many infections of SARS-CoV-2 the country has recorded overall. The internationally isolated nation first officially confirmed coronavirus infections in mid-May and said it was facing an epidemic emergency. Since then it has referred to “fever cases.”
According to the country’s own figures, nearly 4.8 million such cases have been recorded since the end of April. There have been 74 fatalities. Experts assume North Korea does not have sufficient testing capacities.
However, authorities said they immediately sent “mobile anti-epidemic” teams to those regions with fever cases to conduct PCR tests and antibody tests to determine the cause of the symptoms.
