North Korea is ramping up production of drugs and medical supplies to battle the COVID-19 outbreak, state media KCNA said Thursday, as its pandemic caseload neared 2 million a week after the country acknowledged the outbreak and scrambled to slow infections among its unvaccinated population.
The isolated country, which has imposed a nationwide lockdown, is also increasing the production of traditional Korean medicines used to reduce fever and pain, KCNA said, calling them "effective in preventing and curing the malicious disease."
North Korean health authorities said Thursday that a fast-spreading fever has killed 63 people and sickened about 2 million others since late April, while about 740,000 remain quarantined. Earlier this week, North Korea said its total COVID-19 caseload stood at 168 despite rising fever cases. Many foreign experts doubt the figures and believe the scale of the outbreak is being underreported to prevent public unrest that could hurt Kim’s leadership.
A sweeping COVID-19 wave, which North Korea first confirmed last week, has fanned concerns over a lack of medical resources and vaccines, with the U.N. human rights agency warning of "devastating" consequences for its 25 million people.
The outbreak spread after Pyongyang held a massive military parade on April 25 and was expected to peak between late May and early June, South Korea's Newsis news agency said on Wednesday, citing lawmakers briefed by Seoul's spy agency.
KCNA had said only that a wave of fever of unidentified origin began in late April.
Factories are churning out more injections, medicines, thermometers and other medical supplies in the capital Pyongyang and nearby regions "in a lightning way," while more isolation wards were installed and disinfection work intensified around the country, KCNA said.
"Thousands of tons of salt were urgently transported to Pyongyang City to produce an antiseptic solution," KCNA said.
The reports came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un criticized the ineffective distribution of drugs and slammed officials for their "immature" responses to the epidemic.
The country’s pandemic response appears largely focused on isolating suspected patients. That may be all it can really do, as it lacks vaccines, antiviral pills, intensive care units and other medical assets that ensure millions of sick people in other countries survive.
Without a national vaccination campaign and COVID-19 treatment, state media have encouraged patients to use painkillers and antibiotics as well as unverified home remedies, such as gargling salt water, or drinking lonicera japonica tea or willow leaf tea.
"Their guidelines don’t make sense at all. It’s like the government is asking people to contact doctors only if they have breathing difficulties, which means just before they die," said former North Korean agriculture official Cho Chung Hui, who fled to South Korea in 2011. "My heart aches when I think about my brother and sister in North Korea and their suffering."
North Korea's state television recommended wearing two masks outdoors, a practice Kim followed on a weekend pharmacy visit, though not in TV images of a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on Tuesday.
South Korea and the United States have offered to help North Korea fight the virus, including sending aid, but have not received a response, Seoul's deputy national security advisor said on Wednesday.