Five-day COVID-19 lockdown imposed in Pyongyang

all of a sudden, and its way spiking the total world statistics --

World: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
(no paywall, no quota)

China: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/china-covid-cases.html
Jan 24: 1,741,739 new cases, 72,596 new deaths

I was going to comment that East Asia has long been a world Covid hotspot (specifically Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, though I'm glad these 3 have come down a long way), when I noticed the China reporting surge.

It doesn't show any reporting from N. Korea, but apparently that they have a big problem is something they can't hide anymore.

Dunno, I'm just talking about what the maps and tables say.

Edited to addI looked this morning (1130a ET Jan 25), and the enormous spikeup on Jan 24 is gone, both in the China data and the world data.

…”Under the brilliant leadership of Dear Leader, we still haven’t had a single case of COVID – and, to make sure that remains the case, and that Western powers don’t infect us with the disease we don’t have, Dear Leader has ordered a five-day precautionary lockdown.”

He wished he could be a Dictator and make it magically disappear in 40 days. He did his best to downplay the virus when it was starting to spread, and people died as a result.

I feel even worse for the rural citizens of North Korea. Food, medicine and most basic items which were already in short supply are going to be much, much more removed from them now.