North Korea imported more than 1 million facial masks and 15,000 pairs of rubber gloves from China in July, shortly before declaring victory over Covid-19, Chinese trade figures show.

Pyongyang last week declared victory over the coronavirus, ending a little-detailed fight against “fever” cases that had risen to 4.77 million in the country of around 26 million people. It has registered no new such cases since July 29.

Still, China exported 1.23 million facial masks to North Korea in July, worth $44,307, surging from 17,000 the previous month, according to data released by Chinese customs at the weekend.

From January to July, the last month for which data is available, the North bought more than 11.93 million masks from China, data showed.