Twenty-one more deaths from "fever" have occurred in North Korea, two days after the first ever case of COVID-19 was officially announced, state media KCNA said on Saturday.

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Some 174,440 new cases of fever were recorded on Friday, including 21 leading to death, the official agency said, without specifying how many people died from the coronavirus. Containment measures were enacted on Friday to combat the COVID epidemic which has spread throughout the country.