The World Health Organization said it had no access to data about North Korea's Covid-19 outbreak, but assumed the crisis was deepening, contrary to Pyongyang's reports of "progress".
North Korea, which announced its first ever coronavirus cases on 12 May, said last week its Covid outbreak had been brought under control, with state media reporting falling caseloads.
But WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan questioned that claim. "We assume that situation is getting worse not better," he told reporters, acknowledging though that the secretive totalitarian state had provided only very limited information. "Right now we are not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the ground," he said, pointing out that "it is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don't have access to the necessary data." Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's lead on Covid-19, meanwhile said the country had registered more than three million suspected Covid cases, although the official accounts only mention cases of "fever".
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported some 96,600 "fevered cases" in 24 hours, for a total of 3.8 million cases since late April.