North Korea Orders Lockdown After The Nation Reports First Coronavirus Case

New Delhi: North Korea has confirmed its first ever COVID infection, since coronavirus was reported in 2020, and ordered a ‘severe national lockdown’.

The person who reported sick in capital city of Pyongyang was found be carrying Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Samples taken from patients sick with fever in the capital were “consistent with” the virus highly transmissible Omicron variant, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The country had earlier never admitted to a case of COVID-19 as the government had imposed a rigid coronavirus blockade. In January 2020, it was one of the first nations to close its borders to prevent the spread of the virus.

On Thursday, top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, held a crisis politburo meeting to discuss the outbreak and announced they would implement a “maximum emergency” virus control system, the NDTV reported.

Kim told the meeting that “the goal was to eliminate the root within the shortest period of time,” according to KCNA.

“He assured us that because of the people’s high political awareness… we will surely overcome the emergency and win the emergency quarantine project,” it said.