North Korea reports 186,000 new COVID-19 cases per day

North Korean authorities have registered at least 186,000 people with symptoms of COVID-19 over the past day.

More than 2.64 million cases have been observed since late April 2022 amid the spread of COVID-19, Yonhap News Agency reported on May 22, citing the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), according to TASS.

Some 2.06 million people out of the total number of patients recovered, and 579,000 people are being treated. One person died during the past 24 hours. The total number of fatal cases reached 67.

Pyongyang’s authorities said that the number of “sick with a fever” includes not only those infected with the coronavirus. The authorities allegedly carry out statistics on people with symptoms of a fever due to limited mass testing and accurate detection of COVID-19.

“The current situation with the spread of coronavirus in North Korea shows a positive trend of transition from a sharp increase at the beginning of the epidemic to a decrease after it was taken under control. The number of new cases was less than 200,000 for the first time within nearly 10 days,” KCNA reports.

North Korea’s population reaches approximately 24 million, Yonhap reports.

KCNA for the first time reported about the detection of a coronavirus in North Korea on May 2, 2022.

In this regard, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea was convened where the country’s President Kim Jong-un instructed the authorities to declare a lockdown in all cities and counties of North Korea.