Seoul - North Korean health officials are testing rivers, lakes, the air and household wastewater and garbage for the coronavirus, as doubts arise on claims of its tiny covid death rate.
The isolated country, battling an unprecedented surge in COVID cases since declaring a state of emergency, imposed a nationwide lockdown this month, fuelling concerns about a lack of vaccines, medical supplies and food shortages.
According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been successful, about 3.3 million people reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died, since the country acknowledged the outbreak.
Medical experts say that the low mortality rate of 0.002%, ie, if all are coronavirus cases, is a rarity that no other country, has achieved against the disease that has killed more than 6 million people worldwide.
Experts say that the country should have suffered far greater deaths than reported, considering fewer vaccines, the sizable number of undernourished people and a lack of critical care facilities and test kits to detect virus cases in large numbers.
“Scientifically, their figures can’t be accepted,” said Lee Yo Han, a professor at Ajou University Graduate School of Public Health in South Korea, adding that the public data “were likely all controlled (by the authorities) and embedded with their political intentions.”
Observers say that the 38-year-old ruler, Kim, is desperate, to win bigger public support as he deals with severe economic difficulties caused by border shutdowns, U.N. sanctions and his own mismanagement. It then becomes imperative to soon proclaims victory over COVID-19, with all credit given to Kim’s leadership.
North Korea’s daily fever tally peaked at nearly 400,000 early last week; before nosediving to around 100,000 in the past few days. On Friday, it added one more death after claiming no fatalities for three consecutive days.
The country said last year that it had developed its own polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test equipment, but has never confirmed how many people have tested positive, instead reporting the number with fever symptoms.
Experts have said those figures could be underreported and make it hard to evaluate the scale of the situation.
-Ap/Reuters