No crown in these states: good measures or good cover-up?

No crown in these states: good measures or good cover-up?

The pandemic has the world under control. But eight countries seem to defy it, at least according to official WHO information. They couldn’t be more different, especially in their credibility.

Sonja Eichert / t-online

This week marked the anniversary of the first corona case in Germany. Since then, more than two million people in this country have been infected and more than 50,000 have died. The pandemic has the world under control. But there are still some countries that have not yet reported a single case to the World Health Organization. How is that possible?

Probably the best known example: North Korea. Dictator Kim Jong-un boasts of his country’s supposed success against the pandemic, but this is questioned internationally. The country’s borders were closed at an early stage, entry was prohibited, and rail and air traffic abroad ceased. This also cut off economically important trade with China. Then the alarm went off in July: a suspicious case in the border town of Kaesong. A North Korean who had fled to South Korea years earlier and is now returning illegally is showing symptoms. Without further ado, Kim had the city cordoned off. Three weeks later, the measures were lifted again, the case at least not officially confirmed.

North Korea: doubtful

But the regime remains sensitive to the problems of the pandemic. In December, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyeong-hwa said claims of no crown are hard to believe. Kim Yo-jong, the ruler’s influential sister, replied: Kang would “pay dearly” for “inconsiderate comments.”

However, there are enough reasons to doubt: in November, the South Korean secret service announced that North Korean hackers had tried to obtain data from South Korean vaccine developers. The US group Microsoft reported something similar. Also in November, the South Korean secret service reported that Kim had imposed “irrational measures”: among other things, fishing and salt production had been stopped in the country for fear that seawater was contaminated with corona virus.

The New Year’s Eve party in the capital Pyongyang was also much smaller this year, observers reported. There were fewer spectators in the place. They would have been very close, but they wore masks.

In January, at the meeting of the Workers’ Party, there was no longer any sign of panic in Kim Jong-un: he praised the party for keeping the pandemic away from the population. The country still appears interested in corona vaccination: The Wall Street Journal reports that North Korea requested a vaccine from the international Gavi vaccine alliance in late 2020. Several European embassies have also received inquiries about procuring vaccines from Korea. North.

Turkmenistan: WHO can’t prove anything

As isolated as North Korea: Turkmenistan. The former Soviet republic is surrounded by countries that are seriously suffering from the pandemic, especially Iran, with more than a million infections. However, there are officially no Covid patients in the country, and even WHO experts could not prove during a visit in July that there are actually cases. The places to visit, however, were chosen by the authoritarian regime, so it is doubtful how significant they were.

As early as May, local media reported a surge in deaths, overcrowded morgues, and more and more new graves in cemeteries. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch is also publicly expressing its doubts: the regime’s policies mean that there is a lack of protective equipment for medical personnel, medicines and equipment. In June, the US embassy issued a warning that there were reports of people with corona symptoms being quarantined. The Turkmenistan regime denied that the United States spread false news.

Oceania: island states have an advantage

But there are also countries that have managed to remain crown-free so far, and where doubts about the official data do not predominate. They all have one advantage in common: their geographical remoteness. Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Kiribati are Pacific island states, far from the nearest continent. They were able to prevent the outbreak of the pandemic through strict entry restrictions, quarantine and testing regulations, and the more extensive cessation of air traffic.

The downside: in some cases, citizens of their own country are not even allowed in. For example, 60 sailors from Kiribati were trapped in Hamburg at Christmas; some of them reported that they had not been in their home country for a year and a half.

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