The Asian country is promoting the use of traditional medicines to relieve fever and pain while fighting an unprecedented outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Conventional treatments ‘effective in preventing and treating this sinister disease’ guardian North Korean state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is facing a major epidemic, with more than 260,000 new suspected cases of Covid-19 recorded on May 19, bringing the number of patients with fever symptoms to nearly 2 million.
In the absence of a national vaccination and treatment program for Covid-19, North Korean media has encouraged symptomatic patients to take painkillers, antibiotics and home remedies such as throat rinses.
According to the agency, the factories also went into the production of more oxygen cylinders, medicines, thermometers and other medical equipment in the capital and its surrounding areas after the outbreak of the infection, while the authorities set up more and more isolation and intensive disinfection areas.
Because it could have been prepackaged, North Korea has rejected offers of assistance from South Korea and the United States, as well as requests from the World Health Organization for additional epidemiological data.
However, an anonymous source in the Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the country was more open to China, as three planes were sent to Shenyang on May 17 to receive medical supplies there.
