North Korea has officially confirmed a Covid 19 outbreak, with state media reporting it has a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron virus, known as BA. There was 2 detected in Pyongyang.
The state media said that the country has had the biggest emergency situation in the country with a hole in its emergency quarantine front that has been kept safe over the past two years and three months since February 2020.
The report said people in Pyongyang contracted the Omicron variant, without providing any details on case numbers or possible sources of infection.
The report was published as North Korea's ruler, Kim Jong-un, chaired a Workers Party meeting to discuss responses to the first outbreak of the coronaviruses.
During the meeting, Kim reportedly called for officials to try to control transmissions and eliminate the infection source as soon as possible.
North Korea had previously claimed a perfect record in keeping out of Covid 19 from its territory. It had closed its border to nearly all trade and visitors for two years, a further blow to an economy already damaged by decades of mismanagement and US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile program.