Pyongyang assures that its wave of COVID-19 arose on the border with South Korea

Seoul denies being related to the North Korean coronavirus outbreak, as Pyongyang has assured Jul 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

North Korean health authorities concluded on Friday that its first coronavirus cases arose from an area near the inter-Korean border, following an investigation into the transmission route of its virus outbreak, the North Korean news agency reported. KCNA, according to its acronym in English).

“Investigation results showed that several people who came to the capital from Ifo-ri area in Kumgang county of Kangwon province in mid-April had fever,” KCNA said.

“A sharp increase in fever cases was witnessed among their contacts and a group of people with fever emerged for the first time in the Ifo-ri area,” the North Korean agency added.

Thus, he explained that an 18-year-old soldier and a 5-year-old kindergarten student had contact with “foreign things” in the cross-border area, in early April, and later tested positive for coronavirus.

For its part, South Korea has denied being related to the North Korean coronavirus outbreak, according to Pyongyang, the southern neighbor would have been responsible for sending objects with coronavirus to his country.

There is a “common opinion” among South Korean and international health care organizations and experts that a COVID-19 infection transmitted by contact with the surface of an object is realistically impossible, the deputy spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Unification said. , Cha Duck-chul, as reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Thus, it has emphasized that they are not aware of official confirmations of cases of coronavirus infection through postal or other material.

North Korea’s Ifo-ri area borders South Korea’s eastern Inje and Yanggu counties in South Korea’s Gangwon province.

KCNA has pointed out that the national emergency epidemiological prevention control center has issued an order stressing the need to vigilantly deal with “foreign things arriving by wind and other weather phenomena, as well as balloons in the areas along along the demarcation line and borders”.

Meanwhile, presumed daily coronavirus cases in North Korea have remained below 5,000 for the second day in a row.

The total number of coronavirus cases recorded in North Korea from April through Thursday has reached more than 4.74 million.