North Korea reports first suspected infection as global cases top 16 million

SEOUL: North Korea declared its first suspected coronavirus case on Sunday, becoming one of the last countries to do so as the number of people infected worldwide passed 16 million. The isolated, impoverished state had until now insisted it had not detected a single Covid-19 case - even as the pandemic swept the planet, overwhelming health systems and trashing the global economy.

"The vicious virus could be said to have entered the country," leader Kim Jong Un said, according to the official KCNA news agency. Authorities locked down the city of Kaesong, near the frontier with South Korea, as state media said a defector who left for the South three years ago had returned and was suspected to be infected with the coronavirus.

But experts believe the contagion is likely to have already entered North Korea from neighbouring China, where the new disease emerged late last year. The pandemic's spread is still accelerating, with more than five million cases declared since July - a third of the total number of cases since the catastrophe began. Even in recent days there has been an alarming uptick in infections, including in places that had appeared to have controlled their outbreaks.

One of those was Australia, which on Sunday suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 10 fatalities and a rise in new infections despite an intense lockdown effort. Around a quarter of the world's 16 million confirmed Covid-19 cases are in the United States, which recorded more than 68,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.

After a drop in transmission rates in late spring, the country has seen a virus surge - particularly in California, Florida and Texas, which is also bracing for the first Atlantic hurricane of the year. Daily US fatalities have exceeded 1,000 for the past four days, rapidly increasing the country's death toll to more than 146,000.

Meanwhile Europe has reported around three million infections - despite being largely open for summer holidays within the continent. However in a snap decision, Britain's government said passengers arriving from Spain will have to self-isolate for two weeks, after a surge in cases in the Mediterranean country, with health officials pointing to nightlife as a possible culprit. The move, effective from Sunday, has reportedly caught out its Transport Minister Grant Shapps who is holidaying there.