North Korea has reportedly lifted quarantine measures imposed on foreign diplomats in the country to block a potential outbreak of COVID-19 and reopened several stores in downtown Pyongyang.

Posting on social media Wednesday, the Russian Embassy in the country said the North Korean Foreign Ministry had notified them through a diplomatic note that as of the end of the quarantine period on Monday, a store for foreigners in Pyongyang's diplomatic quarter, a foreigner's club and several department stores would be reopened.

The embassy said that staff and their families, who had been unable to leave Pyongyang's diplomatic quarter for a month, secured the North's official permits on Tuesday that would allow them to go to a hospital in the area for checkups and to move about the city.

The embassy added that it is working with North Korean Foreign Ministry officials to increase the number of downtown facilities Russian diplomatic personnel can visit.

North Korea had at the start of February shut down air and rail traffic with China and Russia and imposed a ban on foreigners entering or leaving the country in order to prevent COVID-19 from entering. Foreign diplomatic personnel in North Korea were ordered to quarantine themselves in their embassies and Pyongyang's diplomatic quarter.