...
Coronavirus erupts in North Korea: 'The country is in no way prepared for a virus outbreak' | Abroad | DR Up to 1.7 million people in North Korea are believed to have been infected with covid-19 since the end of April. Last week, North Korea officially registered the first corona-related. It is now estimated that more than one and a half million people have been infected since the end of April. This is something close to a disaster for one of the world's most closed countries. The approximately 25 million are not, and are not capable of one, .While large parts of the world have been shut down over the past two years, North Korea has been successful in keeping covid-19 out the door. At least officially. For that is what information is leaking out of the country. This is a country that, without vaccines and without a well-functioning health system, is in no way prepared for a virus outbreak. Philip Khokhar But now it seems to be over. Last night, the official announcement was that the country has now registered 1.72 million cases of what the government calls "fever-disease", since the end of April, writes among others It has not been confirmed that they are corona-infected. This is partly due to the fact that North Korea has test capacity. But corona has probably been in the country for a long time. It is only now that the country has had to admit it, assesses DR's Asia correspondent, Philip Khokhar: - Probably the infection is so widespread in North Korea that it could no longer keep it hidden, and therefore they had to acknowledge , that there is a major outbreak in North Korea, even though they primarily call it a fever.Philip Khokhar is Asia correspondent for DR, from which he covers countries such as North Korea, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Singapore. He lives in China on a daily basis. And it can get quite serious, says Philip Khokhar. - This is a country that, without and without a well-functioning health system, is in no way prepared for a virus outbreak. North Korea's undisputed leader, Kim Jong-un, this week longed for his office and said that it did not have the situation properly. Therefore, he has now taken the matter into his own hands and introduced a number, including closures and assembly bans, writes. But the question is whether it North Korean health care system is geared to one at all. The United Nations Human Rights Organization (OHCHR) is deeply concerned about the situation in North Korea. " UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Both the international community and several of North Korea have offered to send to North Korea. But so far, the closed country has international aid. Instead, the country has opted for closed borders as the way forward. Precisely that strategy has caused serious frowns at the World Health Organization, .- is deeply concerned about the risk of further spread of covid-19 in the country. Especially because there are not, and many have underlying diseases, which means they are at risk of serious illness and death, says the director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The US State Department also commented yesterday on North Korea's unwillingness to accept. "Unfortunately, North Korea so far has all the vaccine donations from Covax," said spokesman Ned Price. The collaboration involves distributing vaccines around the world, especially to the world's poor countries. In principle, Covax only receives vaccines directly for the collaboration and thus not, for example, excess vaccines that have been in stock in the countries. , that corona has come to the country, then it is according to DR's Asia correspondent that the regime in will not show weakness.- The board has a hard time admitting that it can not take care of itself. So if they first open Pandora's box and have to explain to them why they have not accepted, why they do not have a better health system, then you actually have a discussion about the system itself, says Philip Khokhar. According to the North Korean authorities, more than 1 , 7 million people have been infected with the "fever" since the end of April. About one million should have recovered, but about 600,000 are undergoing treatment.