Official media announced the death of 6 people and the treatment of 350,000 people from a fever that spread explosively across North Korea, a day after Pyongyang admitted the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus for the first time in North Korea.

North Korea likely does not have enough Covid-19 tests and other medical equipment and said it does not know the cause of the mass fever, but the spread of Covid-19 could be devastating in a country with a broken healthcare system and unvaccinated people suffering from malnutrition.

The official North Korean Central News Agency said 350,000 people have been infected with the fever since late April, and 162,200 people have recovered.

It added that 18,000 people showed fever symptoms on Thursday alone, and 187,800 people were isolated to receive treatment.

The Korean Central News Agency said that one of the six people who died was confirmed to be infected with the Omicron variant, but the exact number of patients infected with Covid-19 was not immediately clear.

North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown on Thursday after admitting the first Covid-19 cases. Those reports said that tests conducted on an unspecified number of people came back positive for the Omicron variant.

It is unusual for isolated North Korea to admit to an outbreak of any infectious disease, let alone a serious disease like Covid-19, as the state is very proud and sensitive to external perception of what it calls the "socialist utopian city".

While Kim has sometimes been frank about the deterioration of his economy and other problems in recent years, he has repeatedly expressed confidence in North Korea’s response to the pandemic and has not been seen wearing a mask in public even at the ruling party meeting on Thursday where the North announced the spread of the coronavirus infection.