Standing tall in bright red hazmat suits, five North Korean health workers stride toward an ambulance to do battle with a COVID-19 outbreak that — in the presumed absence of vaccines — the country is using antibiotics and home remedies to treat.
The isolated state is one of only two countries yet to begin a vaccination campaign and, until last week, had insisted it was free of COVID-19.
Now it is mobilizing forces including the army and a public information campaign to combat what authorities have acknowledged is an "explosive" outbreak.