This undated picture released from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on May 20, 2022 shows employees of the Central Ideals Zoo disinfecting the zoo to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in Pyongyang. (STR / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

SEOUL / NEW DELHI – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Saturday reported more than 200,000 new patients suffering from fever for a fifth consecutive day, as it fought its first confirmed coronavirus outbreak.

At least 219,030 people newly showed fever symptoms as of Friday evening, taking the total number of such cases to 2,460,640, the official KCNA news agency reported, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters. The death toll rose by one to 66.

DPRK leader Kim Jong-un held a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's politburo on Saturday to check the COVID situation and responses made over the nine days since the outbreak emerged, KCNA reported

In a separate report, KCNA said DPRK leader Kim Jong-un had held a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's politburo early on Saturday to check the COVID situation and responses made over the nine days since the outbreak emerged.

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Kim praised "positive progress" in the anti-virus campaign but called for consistently adjusting and optimizing policy to "seize the chance of winning the battle against the epidemic."

India

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,134,145 on Saturday, as 2,323 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.

Besides, 25 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Friday morning took the death toll to 524,348.

There are still 14,996 active COVID-19 cases in the country with a fall of 48 active cases during the past 24 hours.

So far, 42,594,801 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals, of whom 2,346 were discharged during the past 24 hours.  

The Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea reported 23,462 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Friday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 17,938,399, the health authorities said Saturday.

The daily caseload was down from 25,125 in the previous day and lower than 29,576 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The health authorities believed that the daily caseload has been on the decline following the Omicron variant-driven resurgence, which may have peaked in the middle of March.

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Among the new cases, 11 were imported from overseas, lifting the total to 32,487.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 235, down 16 from the previous day.

A total of 26 more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 23,911. The total fatality rate was 0.13 percent.

The number of people who received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines was 44,568,589 or 86.8 percent of the total population, and the figure for those getting booster jabs was 33,259,652 people, or 64.8 percent of the population.