North Korea, which has largely kept its borders shuttered over the pandemic, Thursday confirmed its first detection of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.<\/P>
According to the official Korea Central News Agency, samples were taken from a group of people in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday. A rigorous genetic sequence analysis found that the results were consistent with the virus BA.2. The number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 is unknown.<\/P>
It marks the first time North Korea has acknowledged a case of COVID-19 since it closed its borders in February 2020 and instituted its own quarantine measures amid the global pandemic spread.<\/P>
A Politburo meeting was held in response to the \u201cmost critical emergency,\u201d at which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a lockdown in all cities and counties, directing businesses and production facilities to operate in isolation to completely block the spread of the \u201cmalicious virus.\u201d<\/P>
He said the party and government will mobilize medical supplies that have been stockpiled in anticipation of such an emergency, state media reported. He ordered border, sea and air defenses to be strengthened.<\/P>
More dangerous than the virus, Kim alleged, was the \u201cunscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will.\u201d He added that the state would win the \u201ccurrent sudden situation\u201d given its strong ability to organize and praised the people\u2019s awareness \u201ccemented during the prolonged emergency epidemic prevention campaign.\u201d<\/P>
North Korea has not likely vaccinated most of its 26 million people, if any. State media outlets have not reported any vaccination efforts. The United Nations\u2019 COVAX program confirmed earlier this month that it had reallocated its vaccines earmarked for North Korea to other countries, after Pyongyang failed to accept the supply for months.<\/P>
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Source: Voice of America<\/P>
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North Korea, which has largely kept its borders shuttered over the pandemic, Thursday confirmed its first detection of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.According to the official Korea Central News Agency, samples were taken from a group o…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n