Another 21 coronavirus fatalities have been recorded in North Korea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Saturday.
The media outlet said on Friday, citing North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), that six COVID-19 deaths had been confirmed in the country.
The KCNA reported on Thursday that North Korea had detected its first case of the BA.2 Omicron variant, also known as stealth Omicron.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on Saturday, described the coronavirus outbreak as "a great disaster." He emphasized the need to tighten sanitary measures to overcome the crisis and handed down instructions to study China’s experience in combating the pandemic.