SEOUL, May 22. /TASS/. The authorities of North Korea registered at least 186,090 cases of fever against the backdrop of a coronavirus outbreak in the country, the overall number of such cases since late April currently stands at 2.64 million, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, citing North’s KCNA.

About 2.06 million of patients have already recovered, while about 579,000 are currently being treated. One fever patient died in the past day, bringing the official death toll to 67. As Yonhap reported earlier with reference to South Korean experts, the official statistics of North Korea provides only the number of people with fever symptoms, presumably due to lack of equipment for mass COVID-19 tests. Not all of those mentioned in the official statistics are necessarily infected with the coronavirus, Yonhap said.

"The current coronavirus situation in North Korea is demonstrating a positive trend as the sharp increase in cases in the start of the epidemics was replaced with a decline as the situation was taken under control, KCNA said.

For the first time in 10 days, the number of new cases was below 200,000.

North Korea’s population is estimated at approximately 24 million people.

On May 2, KCNA reported that North Korea had detected its first case of the BA.2 Omicron variant, also known as stealth Omicron.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on May 15. He instructed to introduce the lockdown in all of the country’s cities and provinces.