North Korea: Six dead, 350,000 “fevers” as coronavirus spreads “explosively”

Enlarge / North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un on June 30, 2019. (credit: Getty | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI)

At least six people in North Korea have died and more than 350,000 have contracted an unusual fever since late April in an outbreak that "explosively spread nationwide," North Korean state media said Friday.

On Thursday, 18,000 new cases were reported, 187,800 people were in quarantine, and 162,200 had reportedly recovered. The cases are being defined by "a fever whose cause couldn’t be identified," according to The New York Times.

The numbers come just a day after the authoritarian country acknowledged for the first time during the pandemic that the coronavirus was spreading within its borders.