N. Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases under 200 for 2nd day: state media

North Korea's new suspected COVID-19 cases remained below 200 for the second consecutive day, according to its state media Friday.

More than 140 people showed symptoms of 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.

It did not provide information on whether additional deaths have been reported. As of July 5, the death toll stood at 74, with the fatality rate at 0.002 percent.

The total number of fever cases since late April came to over 4.77 million as of 6 p.m. Thursday, of which 99.99 percent had recovered and at least 330 others are being treated, it added.

The North's daily fever tally has been on a downward trend after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15.

The KCNA reported that health authorities are introducing more measures, including improved testing equipment, to control the virus situation more effectively.

"The checking of nucleic acid rapid test equipment of our style and the inspection of their quality have been completed, preparations for distributing them have been pushed ahead and measures are being taken to produce the test equipment with better performance," it said in an English-language article.

A system to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases has also been established, while a test method for the monkeypox virus has been perfected, it added.

Pyongyang disclosed its first COVID-19 case May 12, after claiming to be coronavirus-free for over two years, and implemented nationwide lockdowns. (Yonhap)