North Korea claims no COVID-19 cases nearly one year after shutting its borders | NK News
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October 03, 2026Oct 03, 2026

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North Korea claims no COVID-19 cases nearly one year after shutting its borders

The country shut down its borders in Jan. 2020 and also enacted two lockdowns to trade since

Nearly one year after North Korea closed its borders to protect itself from COVID-19, the country once again claims to have zero confirmed cases of the virus as of Jan. 14.

According to a new report from the World Health Organization, surveillance for the virus is still ongoing in the DPRK, with 15 laboratories conducting COVID-19 tests throughout the country. The latest report does not include total testing numbers or the number of people in quarantine, but a previous WHO update stated that North Korea had tested a total of 26,244 samples from 13,259 people as of Dec. 31, 2020.