UN alarmed as COVID-19 spreads in North Korea, ready to help

But if COVID-19 is allowed to spread unabated, there is a greater chance new and potentially more dangerous variants could emerge, putting the whole world at risk.

“Where you have unchecked transmission, there is always a higher risk of new variants emerging,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters.

“So certainly it is worrying if countries … are not using the tools that are now available.”

And while fears abound that more dangerous COVID-19 variants could emerge, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, stressed that the dominant Omicron variant was dangerous.

“The notion that Omicron is mild is false … That narrative is really deadly, because people think that they’re not at risk,” she said.

For the unvaccinated, and especially the elderly or people with underlying conditions, Omicron can cause “severe disease and death,” she said.

“This is why vaccines are so important.”

‘DIRE CONSEQUENCES’

Earlier on Tuesday, the UN also cautioned that the measures introduced by Pyongyang to rein in the outbreak could lead to serious rights violations.

“The latest restrictions, which include putting people under strict isolation and imposing further travel restrictions, will have dire consequences for those already struggling to meet their basic needs,” UN rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters.

“We urge the … authorities to ensure that all measures adopted to tackle the pandemic are necessary, proportionate, non-discriminatory, time-bound and strictly in line with international human rights law,” she said.

Throssell also reiterated a call for countries “to relax sanctions to enable urgent humanitarian and COVID-related assistance” to the impoverished country.

North Korea has one of the world’s worst healthcare systems, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units, and no COVID-19 treatment drugs or mass testing ability, experts say.

“We encourage the DPRK as a matter of urgency to discuss with the UN the opening of channels for humanitarian support, including medicines, vaccines, equipment and other life-saving support,” Throssell said.

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