TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
North Korea locks down capital city over 'respiratory illness': Report
Change Size
This picture taken on June 10, 2022 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 11 shows workers disinfecting the interior of Pyongyang International Airport as part of measures against the COVID-19 coronavirus. (AFP/KCNA/KNS)
A
uthorities in the North Korean capital Pyongyang have ordered a five-day lockdown due to rising cases of an unspecified respiratory illness, Seoul-based NK News reported on Wednesday, citing a government notice.
The notice did not mention COVID-19, but said that residents in the city are required to stay in their homes through the end of Sunday and must submit to temperature checks multiple times each day, according to NK News, which monitors North Korea.
On Tuesday, the website reported that Pyongyang residents appeared to be stocking up on goods in anticipation of stricter measures. It is unclear if other areas of the country have imposed new lockdowns.
North Korea acknowledged its first COVID-19 outbreak last year, but by August had declared victory over the virus.
The secretive country never confirmed how many people caught COVID, apparently because it lacks the means to conduct widespread testing.
Instead, it reported daily numbers of patients with fever, a tally that rose to some 4.77 million, out of a population of about 25 million. But it has not reported such cases since July 29.
State media have continued to report on anti-pandemic measures to battle respiratory diseases, including the flu, but had yet to report on the lockdown order.
On Tuesday, state news agency KCNA said the city of Kaesong, near the border with South Korea, had intensified public communication campaigns "so that all the working people observe anti-epidemic regulations voluntarily in their work and life."
