Authorities in the North Korean capital Pyongyang have ordered a five-day lockdown after rising cases of an unspecified respiratory illness, the Russian embassy and Seoul-based NK News reported last week, citing a government notice urging citizens to measure their temperatures four times daily and phone results through to a hospital.
The notice shared by the embassy on its Facebook page said a “special anti-epidemic period has been established” and told foreign delegations to keep employees inside.
However, it did not mention Covid-19, although it cited an “increase in winter cases of recurrent flu and other respiratory diseases”.
The lockdowns were first reported by South Korea’s NK News, which monitors secretive North Korea, according to Reuters.
The previous day, the website had reported that Pyongyang residents appeared to be stocking up on goods in anticipation of stricter measures.
North Korea announced its first Covid-19 outbreak last year, but by August had declared victory over the virus, without saying how many citizens had been infected – apparently because it lacks the means to conduct widespread testing.
Instead, it reported daily numbers of patients with fever, a statistic that rose to about 4.77m out of a population of about 25m. But no cases have been reported since 29 July.
Reuters article – North Korea locks down capital city over ‘respiratory illness’ (Open access)
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