North Korea claims to be ‘Covid-free’ 2 months after local pandemic officially began

North Korea says it is on the path to “finally defuse” the country’s Covid-19 crisis, according to a state media report issued July 18, 2022, claiming that the country has beaten the pandemic and that several provinces are reporting zero new cases. The report said 99.99 per cent of the nation’s 4.77 million “fever cases” had fully recovered as of July 19, 2022. There was no information about North Korea’s current Covid-19 caseload and questions remain about how extensive testing has been in the country. The World Health Organization has said that a lack of independent data has made it impossible to get a true sense of how much the coronavirus has spread in the reclusive state.