প্রকাশ: 17/05/2022
North Korea has
mobilised its military to distribute Covid medications and deployed more than
10,000 health workers to help trace potential patients as it fights a sweeping
coronavirus wave, state media KCNA said on Tuesday.
The isolated country is grappling with its first
acknowledged Covid-19 outbreak, which it confirmed last week, fuelling concerns
over a major crisis due to a lack of vaccines and adequate medical infrastructure.
The state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters
reported 269,510 more people with fever symptoms, bringing the total to
1,483,060, while the death toll grew to 56 as of Monday evening, KCNA said. It
did not say how many people have tested positive for Covid-19.
"A powerful force" of the army's medical corps was
immediately deployed to improve the supply of medicines in the capital
Pyongyang, the centre of the epidemic, following an order by leader Kim Jong
Un, KCNA reported.
The team's mission was aimed at "defusing the public
health crisis" in Pyongyang, it said.
Some senior members of the ruling Workers' Party's powerful
politburo visited pharmacies and medicine management offices to check supply
and demand, KCNA said in another dispatch, after Kim criticised ineffective
distribution of drugs.
"They called for establishing a stricter order in
keeping and handling the medical supplies, maintaining the principle of
prioritising the demand and convenience of the people in the supply," KCNA
said.
Tracing efforts were also intensified, with some 11,000
health officials, teachers and medical students joining an "intensive
medical examination of all inhabitants" across the country to locate and
treat people with fever.
Still, various sectors of the national economy are
maintaining production and construction, while taking thorough anti-virus
measures, KCNA added. Kim had ordered that limited activity be allowed in each
city and county.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the virus may
spread rapidly in North Korea, which had no vaccination programme and declined
international help.
South Korea offered working-level talks on Monday to send
medical supplies, including vaccines, masks and test kits, as well as technical
cooperation, but said the North had not acknowledged its message.
The US State Department said it was concerned about the
outbreak's potential impact on North Koreans, and supports vaccine aid to the
country.
"To this end, we strongly support and encourage the
efforts of US and international aid and health organisations in seeking to
prevent and contain the spread of Covid-19 ... and to provide other forms of
humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups in the country," a
spokesperson said.
The spokesperson confirmed that the US envoy for North
Korea, Sung Kim, had a phone call with South Korea's new nuclear negotiator,
Kim Gunn, without elaborating. - Reuters
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