North Korea reports first COVID-19 outbreak since the start of pandemic

North Korea reports the first COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic!

Pyongyang after confirming its first-ever case of Covid-19 has declared a severe national emergency.

A subvariant of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was found in the capital of North Korea. 

According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the Covid cases emerged after health officials on Sunday tested people in an unidentified organization in Pyongyang, the capital, who showed symptoms such as fever,

These people were confirmed to be infected with the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron variant of the virus, the news agency said.

However, It did not reveal how many people were infected.

“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safe over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the state broadcaster said.

“Maximum” control efforts were being imposed in Pyongyang, it added.

North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has called on all the cities and counties of the entire country to thoroughly lock down their areas with factories, businesses and homes closed down and to reorganize flawlessly and perfectly to block the spread of the virus.

The discovery of the Omicron variant in N Korea raises fears of a humanitarian disaster in one of the world’s only remaining unvaccinated countries as it goes into a nationwide lockdown.

Isolated North Korea has enforced strict quarantine measures ever since the pandemic started in early 2020, including border lockdowns.