The COVID-19 surge in China has left several countries worried, who fear a similar fate. Governments have announced enhanced screening of travellers arriving from China to ensure their people remain infection free. But there are two countries that are free of coronavirus, according to a list on the World Health Organisation (WHO) website. The list shows the spread of the infection across the world. Scrolling down, the users will see the names of two countries - Turkmenistan and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) - with zero cases mentioned against their names.
The WHO list has all the countries and the number of COVID-19 cases as released by respective governments. But these two countries are still untouched by the pandemic.
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According to separate WHO pages on the Covid situation in Turkmenistan and North Korea, the countries have not officially acknowledged any case of the infection.
Several news reports have said that Turkmenistan is poorly positioned to cope with a pandemic, with the country ranked 101 out of 195 in the 2019 Global Health Security Index. Several news outlets have talked about the reported huge spread of the disease in the country, but the government officially hasn't acknowledged any of the case of related casualty.
North Korea, meanwhile, said in August that all those who fell sick after the country confirmed its first Covid-19 infections recovered. It continues to report zero COVID-19 cases since then.
The country had announced its first Covid outbreak in May and reported fever and some fatalities. But in recent months, there has been no change in its "zero Covid" report, which is reflecting in the WHO list that is based on government data.
However, there is widespread doubt over the data, especially the number of deaths.
