North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called an emergency meeting after imposing full closure measures in Kaesong City when a person suspected of coronavirus symptoms was found, state media reported Sunday.
It would be the first confirmed publicly reported case in the secret communist state if the person tests positive. North Korea has repeatedly said it is free from the virus, a claim questioned by outside experts.
At the meeting, Kim called the moment "a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country," the official North Korean Central News Agency reported.
The shutdown in Kaesong, a city with an estimated population of 200,000 north of the heavily fortified border with South Korea, began on Friday afternoon, KCNA reported.
The suspected virus patient is a fugitive who fled to South Korea three years ago before illegally crossing the border north early last week, the agency added.
Experts warned that an outbreak in North Korea could cause serious consequences due to its fragile public health care infrastructure and chronic lack of medical supplies.
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Across the border, China reported 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the highest daily number in more than a month. The number of confirmed virus cases worldwide exceeded 16 million on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the count with 4.1 million, followed by 2.3 million cases in Brazil and 1.3 million in India.
Elsewhere, Europe, which has slowly reopened its borders after months of tight blockades across the continent, fears new hot spots as summer vacationers begin to travel.
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