Fifteen more North Koreans have died after suffering from “fever,” state media reported on Sunday, while another 260,000 are afflicted by fever symptoms as the country battles a nationwide COVID-19 outbreak.

North Korea does not likely have the testing capacity to confirm positive COVID cases at a nationwide level, and appears to be using “fever” as a euphemism. 

Over three dozen deaths and hundreds of thousands of cases have been attributed to fever since state media said last week that the omicron strain of COVID-19 spread from Pyongyang in late April.

The Rodong Sinmunreported on Sunday that some 1.3