Reuters report. A WHO member, the isolated country is grappling with its first acknowledged Covid-19 outbreak, fueling concerns over a major crisis due to a lack of vaccines and medical infrastructure. "Certainly it's worrying if countries ...
are not using the tools that are now available," said WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan in response to a question about the outbreak in North Korea. "WHO has repeatedly said that where you have unchecked transmission, there is always a higher risk of new variants emerging," he said.
Additionally, North Korea on Tuesday reported another large jump in illnesses believed to be Covid-19 and encouraged good health habits, as a mass outbreak spreads through its unvaccinated population and military officers were deployed to distribute medicine.
At the same press briefing, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he was "deeply concerned" about the spreading virus among an unvaccinated population with many underlying conditions.