MADRID, 15 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The North Korean health authorities have reported this Sunday that 296,180 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and that 15 people have died, after the "maximum alert" was declared last Saturday for the first coronavirus outbreak that the country is facing.

Two and a half years after the global pandemic began, Pyongyang has already registered a total of more than 800,000 positives and 42 deaths since the start of this outbreak that began on May 12, according to the North Korean state news agency KCNA. .

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told an emergency meeting last Saturday that the country is facing "great turmoil" due to the large number of citizens who have suffered "fever symptoms" since the end of April, as has picked up the specialized portal NK News.

Likewise, Kim has indicated that "the fever" is spreading throughout the country, although it has not spread "inconsolably between regions", for which he has called for rigorous application of regional closures and quarantines.

Of the 42 deaths reported in total since Pyongyang revealed the outbreak, only one person has tested positive for COVID-19. Also, according to the state news agency, since the end of April, about 252,000 have recovered.

Kim Jong Un has established "maximum" response measures against COVID-19, after the omicron coronavirus variant was detected this Sunday in the capital of the Asian country. "Thanks to the high political awareness of the people, the country will surely overcome the emergency," he said.

For the moment, several countries, such as South Korea, China and Russia, have offered their help to the country to deal with the outbreak, although the US government has ruled out immediate assistance plans for the time being.

This same Friday, the Russian government has said it is willing to send help if it is "requested", as reported by the Interface news agency. The Russian Embassy in Pyongyang has indicated that there is such a provision, although it has ruled out that North Korea has asked for any kind of help for the time being.

Likewise, the deputy spokesman for the General Secretariat of the OCU, Fardan Ha, has specified that they are monitoring the outbreak in the country "with concern", although for the moment "they have not received formal communications about it".

"We remain in contact with North Korean representatives on this matter. The OCU remains committed and we stand ready together with our humanitarian partners to help people in need in North Korea on COVID-19 and other issues," he said.