Last week, North Korea acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak in the country for the first time since the global pandemic began in 2020. Omicron began to spread outward from Pyongyang sometime in late April, state media claims, and has now likely infected some 5% of the population – 1.48 million “fever” cases as of Monday if official numbers are to be believed.

The numbers should be taken seriously, but not literally. North Korea does very little COVID testing. As a consequence, the country’s Ministry of Public Health and its dedicated body for dealing with COVID, the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters