South Korea to hold dialogue with North Korea over COVID-19 support

A mysterious fever has killed 15 more people and sickened millions in North Korea, which is struggling to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. With this, the number of people who died of fever in the country has increased to 42. State media gave this information. North Korea, which claimed to have survived the corona virus for more than two years, announced on Thursday that Kovid-infected people have been found in the country. Since then a mysterious fever has spread throughout the country. However, it has not yet been disclosed that how many cases of Kovid-19 are there in it.

Some experts say North Korea lacks the diagnostic kits needed to test large numbers of suspected COVID-19 patients. With 15 deaths recorded on Sunday, the death toll in the country due to fever has gone up to 42. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that 2,96,180 new patients with flu symptoms have been reported in the country, taking the number of patients to 820,620.

The flu caused a humanitarian crisis in North Korea because most of the country's people have not received the corona vaccine and its public health care system has been in shambles for decades. Some experts say a large number of lives could be lost in North Korea if North Korea does not receive outbound shipments of vaccines, medicines and other medical supplies immediately.

North Korea has imposed a nationwide lockdown to fight the virus since Thursday. This could put further pressure on the country's fragile economy, as the pandemic has reduced external trade sharply in recent years. In addition, the country is also facing UN economic sanctions over its nuclear program and its own mismanagement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described the flu outbreak as the biggest upheaval in history during the ruling party's politburo meeting on Saturday. He instructed the officials to learn from China's measures to deal with the corona virus infection. Also appealed to the people to cooperate with the administration in fighting the epidemic.

The KCNA said on Sunday that more than 13 lakh personnel are engaged in the work of spreading awareness among people about the testing, treatment and hygiene of sick people. The KCNA said that all those with fever and others with unusual symptoms are being kept in isolation and being treated. Quoting the country's Emergency Epidemic Prevention Center, KCNA said that 4,96,030 patients have been cured so far, while 324,4550 were being treated till Saturday.