Seoul: Isolated North Korea continued to claim a perfect record for the coronavirus in his latest report to the World Health Organization.
At the start of the pandemic more than a year ago, North Korea described its efforts to keep the virus out as a ‘matter of national existence’. It closed its borders, banned tourists and ousted diplomats. It continues to restrict cross-border traffic and has quarantined tens of thousands of people who showed symptoms.
But it still says it found no case of COVID-19, a widely questionable claim given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border with China, its economic lifeline.
Edwin Salvador, WHO’s representative in North Korea, said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the North had reported that it had 23,121 people for the coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic to April 1 and that all results were negative. Salvador said the North said 732 people were tested between March 26 and April 1.
WHO officials say the North is no longer quarantining the number of people it has quarantined by the UN agency.
North Korea said on Tuesday it would skip the Tokyo Olympics to protect athletes from the ‘global public health crisis caused by COVID-19. The UN-backed program to send COVID-19 vaccines worldwide said in February that North Korea could receive 1.9 million doses of vaccines in the first half of this year. However, COVAX has since warned of global shortages as the Serum Institute of India, which is licensed to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine, puts its stock in domestic demand as the virus load in India increases.
Source: Telangana Today