North Korea's state news agency has reported 21 new deaths from what it called a fever of unidentified origin and ordered nationwide lockdowns.
It brings to 27 the number of deaths offically reported after 6 deaths from the fever were reported on Friday, one of which was confirmed as due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
North Korean State media, KCNA, said 174,440 new fever cases were discovered on Friday alone and that 21 people had died, as it moved into "maximum emergency quarantine system" in a bid to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population.
The KCNA report did not specify whether the victims were positive for Covid-19, but experts say the country lacks mass testing capacity. "The total number of sick people nationwide was 524,440, of which 234,630 were fully recovered, 288,810 were receiving treatment, and the number of deaths so far is 27," added the KCNA report.