North Korea Taking Measures to Prevent Virus Spread, Reports Say

SEOUL (Sputnik) - North Korea is taking measures to eradicate COVID-19 and prevent the emergence of other outbreaks, such as monkeypox, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports.

As part of the emergency counter-epidemic measures, water gets tested regularly and people are prohibited from coming into close contact with wild animals.

According to KCNA, a special remote testing system is being developed in order to help diagnose the coronavirus and other diseases, such as monkeypox.

On Wednesday, South Korea reported its first case of monkeypox: the patient is a South Korean citizen who returned to the country from Germany on 21 June. North Korea has not reported any monkeypox cases so far.

The monkeypox virus is not easily transmitted and spreads through close physical contact, including sexual contact, with an infected individual. Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease (spread between animals and people). It originates in animals like rodents and primates and occurs in remote parts of Central and West Africa.

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , as part of the current outbreak, more than 3,200 monkeypox cases have been reported from 48 different countries. There has also been one death from the virus.