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North Korea reports 6 deaths after admitting COVID-19 outbreak

Virus Outbreak North Korea
Posted at 10:51 AM, May 12, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-12 18:59:18-04

North Korea said on Friday six people died and nearly 190,000 are under quarantine following a rapid spread of fever across the nation in recent weeks, a day after it first acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak in a largely unvaccinated population.

It wasn't immediately clear how many of the cases were COVID-19. The North said one of the six people who died was confirmed to have been infected with the omicron variant.

Experts say a failure to slow infections could have serious consequences because the country has a poor health care system and its 26 million people are believed to be mostly unvaccinated.