North Korea's total 'fever' cases surpass 4 mil. amid antivirus fight

North Korean military personnel serving in the medical sector distribute medicine to residents, in this photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency on Saturday. Yonhap

North Korea reported 73,780 more suspected COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the total number of "fever cases" to over 4 million.

More than 73,780 people showed symptoms of a fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.

This marked the sixth consecutive day for the daily count to remain below 100,000.

The KCNA gave no information on whether additional deaths had been confirmed.

The total number of infections since late April came to more than 4.07 million as of 6 p.m. Saturday, of which more than 3.93 million have recovered and at least 138,480 are being treated, it added.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang claimed the country is taking "optimal epidemic prevention measures based on deep scientific analysis of the epidemic prevention situation."

"By bringing together information from nationwide surveillance, reports, epidemic examinations, experimental tests and the state of analysis, the capability to safely control and manage the epidemic spread is reassessed and practical measures are taken to carry out the epidemic prevention more purposefully," the KCNA said in a separate English-language report.

The country with a population of 25 million announced a COVID-19 outbreak, May 12. (Yonhap)