On Friday state media reported zero fever cases for a seventh straight day. North Korea refers to “fever” rather than “Covid” patients due to a lack of testing equipment.
The country announced its first Covid outbreak in May and has reported fever infections and deaths since. But there is widespread doubt over the data, especially the number of deaths. “No new fever cases were reported during the past week and all those receiving treatment have recovered across the country,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.
North Korea has entered a phase of “stability”, it added, but the country would “redouble efforts to maintain perfection in the execution of state anti-epidemic policies”. Pyongyang has not confirmed how many people tested positive for Covid. But state media said around 4.77 million fever patients have fully recovered and 74 have died since late April, which is a fatality rate of 0.002% – the lowest in the world. Many experts find these statistics hard to believe.