Seoul, Jun. 19, (dpa/GNA) - North Korea has deployed medical teams to South Hwanghae province in the country’s south-west in an attempt to curb the spread of a contagious intestinal disease, state media reported on Sunday.
On Thursday, the KCNA news agency reported the breakout of an “acute enteric epidemic” in the city of Haeju in South Hwanghae province just over a month after the official confirmation of the first Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Medical teams were deployed to South Hwanghae to “intensify their medical check-ups of all citizens” and identify all patients suffering from the disease, KCNA said on Sunday. The workers were also tasked with providing special care to children, the elderly and people with chronic conditions.
Pyongyang said that disinfection work of sewage and garbage disposal facilities was being carried out and the safety of drinking water was being checked.
The nature of the disease was not clear, with observers not ruling out the possibility of a typhoid or cholera outbreak in the largely isolated country. On Friday KCNA reported that more than 800 families were affected.
In May, North Korea was one of the last countries in the world to officially report cases of Covid-19.
Since the end of April, the number of what Pyongyang has called fever-related illnesses has skyrocketed. On Sunday, the country reported that almost 4.62 million cases of fever had been recorded so far. At least 73 people died.
However, there is no official confirmation whether those affected have Covid-19 as the country has hardly any testing capacity, according to experts.
GNA