North Korea has released 221 foreigners previously held in quarantine due to fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.

The news comes just days after DPRK authorities were confirmed to have lifted many of the restrictive anti-coronavirus quarantine measures previously imposed on foreign residents in Pyongyang, but suggests that 159 expatriates may remain under medical observation.

“Of 380 foreigners who were isolated… and were under thorough medical observation, isolation was lifted on 221,” the KCNA said Friday, in a report also carried by ruling party daily the Rodong Sinmun.

“Medical examination work is being intensified on the isolated foreigners and those under medical watch — such as people who came back from foreign countries and their contacts,” it continued, adding that the country was working to “actively” guarantee material needs for the quarantined population.

A nationwide “super special quarantine measure” to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is “being unfolded intensively,” the report said.

Efforts are following the “spirit of the enlarged of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee (CC) Political Bureau (PB) meeting” last weekend, it continued, which saw leader Kim Jong Un warn party officials against “corruption” and stress that “no special cases must be allowed within the state anti-epidemic system.”

KCNA on Friday explained that “the measure on the extension of the isolation period” is being “strictly implemented,” referring to it as a precaution “taken to guarantee the people’s life and national safety — and to thoroughly block the passageways in which the infectious disease can flow in through.”

State media reported in late February that “over 380 foreigners across the country are isolated,” while the party daily on Sunday said that North Korea is holding around 3920 people under quarantine in two provinces, bringing the total number of people known to be under medical monitoring to close to 7000.

Reports that 221 foreigners have been released from quarantine also follows news that a planned flight intended to evacuate diplomats in Pyongyang to Vladivostok later this week has been postponed and is expected to instead take place next Monday.

And while Friday’s KCNA article said that the country’s work to prevent the COVID-19 represented an opportunity to show “the superiority and potential” of the DPRK’s political system, concerns in the international community about the North’s capacity to prevent an epidemic persist.

NGOs and international organizations have in recent weeks received a number of UN sanctions exemption to better prepare North Korea for a potential outbreak, though it remains unknown when and through which transportation channel the shipments will be made, given the partial closure of the country’s borders.

Meanwhile, Seoul on Thursday revealed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday offering his personal condolences to “compatriots” in the South fighting the novel coronavirus.

Edited by Oliver Hothan