North Korea on virus alert says still no cases

North Korea insists it has still not found any cases of COVID-19 in the country, two months after it shut borders, and imposed strict restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

"Fortunately, up until now not one person infected with COVID-2019 has been found in our country," Pak Myong Su, President of the State Sanitary Inspection Board said Wednesday in Pyongyang.

Pak added that from the beginning of the outbreak strict inspection and quarantine measures for people coming from foreign countries had been implemented.

"We shut our borders and completely blocked all air and sea travel," he explained. "Up until now this blockade measure has been taken continuously. We should strengthen further the anti-epidemic work to prevent COVID-2019 coming into our country and take all the measures thoroughly not to let occur even one infection from COVID-2019."

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un highlighted the strictness of precautions against the new coronvirus in a politburo meeting at the end of February.

State media in the socialist country have been regularly reporting about the international spread of COVID-19 and instructing North Koreans about how to step up basic hygiene precautions.

That's amid international concern about how North Korea could cope if there was any spread of the virus in the country, because of the very limited capability of the health sector when it comes to equipment and medicine.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

The new coronavirus has caused a global pandemic that has sickened at least 424,048 people, killed 18,947 worldwide, crippled economies and forced restrictions on the movement of millions of people in an effort to stop the virus from spreading further and overwhelming health care systems.