North Korea reports 15 more COVID-19 suspected deaths

North Korea says it has confirmed 15 more deaths and hundreds of thousands of additional patients with fever amid the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has confirmed 15 more deaths and hundreds of thousands of additional patients with flu-like symptoms as it mobilizes more than a million health and other workers to try to suppress the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak, state media reported Sunday.

After maintaining a widely disputed claim to be coronavirus-free for more than two years, North Korea announced Thursday that it had found its first COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began.

It has since said a fever has spread across the country “explosively” since late April but hasn't disclosed exactly how many COVID-19 cases it has found. Some experts say North Korea lacks the diagnostic kits needed to test a large number of suspected COVID-19 patients.

The additional deaths reported Sunday took the country’s reported fever-related fatalities to 42. The official Korean Central News Agency also reported that another 296,180 people with flu symptoms had been tallied, taking the reported total to 820,620.