North Korea declared the statewide emergency after it reported its first-ever COVID-19 case. On Thursday, state media made announcements of a discovery sub-variant of the highly contagious Omicron infection in Pyongyang. Owing to the detection of the disease, Kim Jong-un ordered an immediate lockdown.
“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the official KCNA news agency said. “The state epidemic prevention work shall be switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system,” KCNA further said.
Samples taken from patients down with fever in Pyongyang “coincided with Omicron BA.2 variant”, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea said it had not seen a single case of COVID-19 since the outbreak began more than two years ago.
Major threat
North Korea could face a major threat as a result of the finding of the Omicron variant. The country has not vaccinated any of its 25 million citizens. Moreover, the lack of a healthcare system could make it difficult to manage outbreaks.
“Given a more inferior vaccination situation and testing capacity and public health infrastructure compared to China, plus the lack of intensive care units, there’s potential for scores of casualties,” Lim Eul-Chul said.
The revelation prompted Kim to call a central committee meeting of the Workers’ Party with officials. It stated that there will be an implementation of “maximum” additional measures. Stricter border checks and shutdown procedures are reportedly going to happen. To avoid infection, all business and manufacturing activities will take place in isolation.
North Korea is one of the nations that have already faced or are still fighting large Omicron breakouts. South Korea, which has strong vaccination rates, recently relaxed practically all COVID-19 restrictions. The infections were falling drastically following an Omicron-fueled increase in March. China, the world’s only major economy with a zero-Covid policy, is currently dealing with Omicron breakout.