Concerns about a dust storm passing through Pyongyang led North Korean authorities to order residents to stay indoors on Wednesday, not fears about an outbreak of COVID-19, NK News has learned.

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo reported that North Korea ordered a lockdown across the country after a number of patients developed fevers, with citizens told on May 4 not to leave their houses.

But NK News understands that residents in the capital were told to stay indoors the same day due to heavy concentrations of particulate matter in the air, an order that authorities reversed on Thursday.

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