At 9:30 a.m. every day this week, a soft-spoken official has appeared on North Korean television to report the number of people with fever and new deaths, and to explain measures to stop North Korea's first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak.
A wave of COVID infections, which North Korea first confirmed last week, has fanned worry about a lack of medical resources and vaccines in the isolated country heavily sanctioned for its nuclear weapons programme. Shanghai detects new infections after five days of 'zero COVID' Shanghai reported new COVID-19 cases outside quarantined areas for the first time after five days of no infections, prompting stricter curbs in a district, but plans to end a prolonged city-wide lockdown on June 1 appeared to remain on track.
The little-known official, Ryu Yong Chol, has become the public face of the isolated country's battle against the epidemic, the equivalent of US Covid-19 czar Dr Anthony Fauci or the director of South Korea's disease prevention agency, Jeong Eun-kyeong
By Hyonhee Shin and Minwoo Park SEOUL (Reuters) - At 9:30 a.m. every day this week, a soft-spoken official has appeared on North Korean television to .