Six people have died and 350,000 have been treated for a fever that has spread "explosively" across North Korea, state media said Friday, a day after acknowledging a coronavirus outbreak for the first time in the pandemic.
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North Korea likely does not have sufficient COVID-19 tests and said it did not know the cause of the mass fevers. Yet a large COVID-19 outbreak could be devastating in a country with a broken health care system and an unvaccinated, malnourished population.
North Korea imposed a lockdown Thursday after acknowledging its first COVID-19 cases. Tests from an unspecified number of people came back positive for the Omicron variant, according to reports.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had repeatedly expressed confidence in North Korea's pandemic response and was not seen wearing a mask in public until a ruling party meeting Thursday when the North announced the COVID-19 infections.
