SAUL, South Korea – Health officials in North Korea are testing rivers, lakes, air and household wastewater and garbage for the coronaviruses as the country intensifies its fight against its first outbreak, state media said Friday.
The country has been in a heated battle against an unprecedented virus wave since declaring a state of emergency and imposing a nationwide lock down this month, fuelling concerns about a lack of vaccine, medical supplies and food.
State media said that authorities are stepping up testing and disinfection across the country after reporting a stabilizing trend in the outbreak this week, including signs that the wave of fever was abating and a relatively low death toll.
More than 100,460 more people had fever symptoms as of Thursday evening, compared to nearly 400,000 about 10 days ago, the official KCNA news agency said.
The total number of fever patients rose to 3,270, 850 among the 25 million population, and the death toll to 69, up by one from a day earlier in the day.
In another dispatch, KCNA said anti-viruses offices collected samples from many sources to check whether areas had been infected with the virus.
Emergency anti-epidemic sectors at all levels give precedence to the tests of specimens collected in rivers and lakes, as well as disinfecting hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sewage and thousands of tons of garbage every day, and examining and analyzing samples, KCNA said.
It didn't elaborate on testing methods. North Korea said last year it developed its own polymerase chain reaction PCR test equipment, but has never confirmed how many people have tested positive, instead reporting the number with fever symptoms.
Experts said the figures could be underreported, making it difficult to assess the scale of the situation.
A video provided by KCNA showed a group of officials wearing protective clothing and medical masks conveying boxes with signs that specimen carrier or bacteria, virus tester. Reuters was unable to verify the information contained in the video.