Days after it first confirmed a Coronavirus outbreak, North Korea says the death toll has reached 50.

North Korea had reported its first COVID-19 death on May 13, a day after first acknowledging an outbreak of the virus.

However, by Sunday evening, the number of patients with fever symptoms had risen to more than 1.2 million, state media reported on Monday, citing the emergency centre for epidemic prevention.

More than half of them have recovered.

The isolated authoritarian country also avoided any reference to the Coronavirus; instead, it continues to speak of the spread of the epidemic.

At an emergency meeting of the Politburo earlier on Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the mobilisation of soldiers to help distribute medicine in the capital.

At the meeting, Kim rebuked officials for failing to deliver medicine in time, according to reports.

How many of the reported cases of fever were actually due to COVID remains unclear.

Meanwhile, experts suspect that North Korea does not have the capacity to conduct mass tests.

North Korea officially confirmed infections with the pathogen last Thursday for the first time since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic more than two years ago.

The country had long claimed to be Coronavirus-free.

This was met with scepticism abroad.