North Korea Confirms 1st Covid Case, Declares "Severe National Emergency"
NDTV
North Korea COVID-19: The country's top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, held a crisis meeting to discuss the outbreak and announced they would implement a "maximum emergency" virus control system.
North Korea has confirmed its first-ever case of Covid-19 and declared a "severe national emergency", with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to "eliminate" the virus, state media said Thursday.
The impoverished, nuclear-armed country has never admitted to a case of Covid-19, with the government imposing a rigid coronavirus blockade of its borders since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
But samples taken from patients sick with fever in the capital were "consistent with" the virus' highly transmissible Omicron variant, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, held a crisis politburo meeting to discuss the outbreak and announced they would implement a "maximum emergency" virus control system.
