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Fever measurement in school child in Pyongyang
Photo: Cha Song Ho/AP
The North Korean news agency KCNA reports the second day in a row less than 200,000 cases of fever within 24 hours.
167,650 other people showed fever symptoms, one person died.
The number of deaths recorded has increased to 68. More than 2.81 million infections have been officially confirmed.
KCNA does not report how many of those affected have been tested for infection with the coronavirus.
Since the first confirmed corona cases in North Korea on May 12, there has been growing concern about the lack of vaccines, inadequate medical care and a possible food crisis in the country of 25 million people.
The government in Pyongyang has so far not responded to offers of help from South Korea and the USA.
Most recently, US President Joe Biden renewed his offer for rapid relief supplies of vaccines.
“We are ready to do this immediately,” Biden said in Seoul over the weekend.
The US had already offered help, but North Korea had not responded.
Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol expressed concern about the "Covid-19 outbreak" in North Korea at their meeting in Seoul, it said in a joint statement.
Accordingly, both sides are willing to support North Korea in the fight against the virus together with the international community.
The dictator's criticism of his own authorities
The governments of the USA and South Korea assume a serious situation in the internationally isolated North Korea.
Despite the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, both countries emphasize that they are ready to provide humanitarian aid to the North Koreans.
North Korea was one of the last countries in the world to officially confirm last week that there were cases of infection with the pathogen.
The number of fever-related illnesses has been increasing rapidly since the end of April.
In view of the apparently massive spread of the virus, ruler Kim Jong Un recently criticized the authorities' reaction as inadequate.
He accused the officials of inadequacy and indolence, as reported by KCNA.
At a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling Workers' Party last week, he criticized that the "immaturity of the state's capacity to deal with the crisis" had increased the "complexity and difficulties" in combating the pandemic.
jok/Reuters
