SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said on Sunday it had closed a city near its border with South Korea and declared a “maximum” national emergency after finding what its leader, Kim Jong-un, said could be the first country case of Covid-19 there.
It issued the maximum alert after a North Korean who had defected to South Korea three years ago but secretly crossed back to the North Kaesong city last Sunday “was suspected of being infected with the vicious virus,” the agency said. North Korean Central News Officer. on Sunday.
After conducting various tests, health authorities have quarantined the person and contacts, as well as those who have been in Kaesong City for the past five days, the North Korean news agency said.
While reporting the incident, the agency did not call it the country’s first coronavirus case, saying the test result was “uncertain.”
But it was serious enough that Kim called an emergency meeting of the Workers’ Party Political Bureau on Saturday, where he admitted that his country could have its first Covid-19 outbreak.
“A critical situation occurred in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” Kim said, declaring “a state of emergency” in Kaesong City and ordering his country to change to “maximum.” emergency system and issue a first-class alert. “
Mr. Kim “took the preventive measure to completely block the city of Kaesong and isolate each district and region from the other” on Friday shortly after receiving a report on the situation, the North Korean news agency said.
So far, North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated countries, has repeatedly said it has no Covid-19 case, although outside experts questioned the claim.
A Covid-19 outbreak could seriously test North Korea’s unequipped public health system and its economy, which is already struggling under international sanctions. International aid agencies have been providing test kits and other assistance to help the country combat any possible spread of Covid-19.
North Korea has taken some of the most drastic action of any country against the virus, and it did so before most other nations.
It closed its borders in late January, closing deals with neighboring China, which represents nine-tenths of its foreign trade. He cracked down on smugglers who keep their thriving unofficial markets running. He quarantined all diplomats in Pyongyang for a month.
The government’s ability to control the movement of people also reinforces its disease control efforts.
But decades of isolation and international sanctions have raised concerns about a lack of medical supplies to combat an outbreak, which many fear has already occurred.
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Frequent questions
Updated July 23, 2020
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What will school be like in September?
- Many schools are unlikely to return to normal hours this fall, requiring the routine of online learning, impromptu child care, and delayed work days to continue. California’s two largest public school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, said July 13 that instruction will be remote only in the fall, citing concerns that rising coronavirus infections in their areas pose too serious a risk to students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll about 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution will not be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the country’s largest New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending a few days in classrooms and other days online. There is no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what’s going on in your community.
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Is the coronavirus in the air?
- Coronavirus can remain in the air for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, growing scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded interior spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain overcast events reported in meat packing plants, churches, and restaurants. It is unclear how often the virus is transmitted through these tiny droplets or sprays, compared to larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or is transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, Linsey said. Marr, Virginia Tech aerosol expert. Aerosols are released even when a symptom-free person exhales, speaks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have summarized the evidence in an open letter to the World Organization. Of the health.
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What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
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Does Covid-19 transmit asymptomatic?
- So far, the evidence seems to show that it does. A widely cited article published in April suggests that people are most infectious approximately two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms, and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were the result of transmission from people who still had no symptoms. Recently, a senior expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people without symptoms was “very rare,” but later withdrew that claim.
North Korea’s top disease control officials attended the Political Bureau meeting that Mr. Kim convened on Saturday, while other top government and party officials from across the country watched it via video conference, media reported. state. Mr. Kim ordered them to fight the spread of the virus “with an unlimited sense of responsibility, loyalty, and devotion.”
North Korea did not reveal the identity of the North Korean fugitive who he said returned home with possible infection with the South Korean virus. The South Korean government did not immediately react to North Korea’s claim.
The North said it was investigating a military unit for failing to catch the fugitive when the person slipped across the inter-Korean border to defect to the South three years ago, and said he planned to “administer severe punishment and take necessary measures.” “The defector returned home last Sunday after illegally crossing back, he said.
More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the early 1990s. But some failed to adjust to life in capitalist South Korea and fled to the North. Still, defections across the inter-Korean border, one of the most heavily armed in the world, are rare.
