North Korea is currently holding around 3920 people under quarantine in South Phyongan Province and Kangwon Province, the country’s ruling party daily reported on Sunday, as the DPRK steps-up efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) within its territory.

The DPRK is “strengthening medical observation,” the Rodong Sinmun reported, “finding visitors who came back from foreign travel, their contacts, and people with irregular symptoms.”

There are around 2420 people in South Phyongan Province and 1500 in Kangwon Province under this kind of monitoring, it added.

The news brings the total number of people under medical monitoring in the DPRK to close to 7000, following news early last week in North Korean state radio that 3000 were under coronavirus-related monitoring in North Phyongan Province.

North Phyongan Province, the party daily said Sunday, is “meticulously pushing ahead with the supply of medicaments, disinfectants, reagents, etc.,” adding that the DPRK “is directing great efforts to preventing COVID-19 in the areas along the frontier and the demarcation line” including Ryanggang Province and Rason City.

The country’s ministries of commerce, light industry, and fisheries are “sending food and daily necessities to the isolated,” the Rodong reported, adding that the Central Emergency Quarantine Command was working to guarantee the living standards of the quarantined foreigners and others under medical monitoring.

The party daily on Sunday also reported that a “daily average of 100,000 officials” were visiting units across the country to educate the people about the dangers of COVID-19 and the best means of preventing the virus.

Detailing nationwide measures against the spread of the virus such as last week’s extension of school vacation, the Rodong also cited “the temporary shut-down” of Masikryong Ski Resort and Yangdok Hot Spring Resort — partially reported by English-language Pyongyang Times earlier in the week.

North Korean media has continued to claim that there are zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country’s territory, despite an increasing number of people reported to be quarantined inside the DPRK.

And though state-run outlet Meari on Sunday claimed that scientists at Kim Il Sung University had successfully completed research on domestically-produced disinfectants, international organizations and NGOs have in recent days been granted sanctions exemption to send coronavirus-related equipment to the DPRK.

Alongside detailing domestic measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Rodong Sinmun also on Sunday updated readers on the situation in South Korea — now a regular fixture of its coverage of the outbreak.

Edited by Oliver Hotham