SANAA, Apr 29 (NNN-SABA) – UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, warned of possible rapid spread of COVID-19, in the war-torn country, where the five-year war severely shattered its health system.
Though Yemen has so far recorded only a single laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19 on Apr 10, in Hadramaut, the shattered health system puts millions vulnerable to the pandemic.
“Since the first confirmed COVID-19 case, we have warned that the virus is now in Yemen and may quickly spread,” Grande said in a statement.
“The factors are all here. Low levels of general immunity, high levels of acute vulnerability and a fragile, overwhelmed health system,” she said.
Yemen has been plagued by a civil war, which erupted in late 2014, when Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militia, seized control over much of the country’s north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital, Sanaa.
Nearly 80 percent of the Yemeni population requires some form of humanitarian assistance and protection, while 10 million people are just a step away from famine.
“Unless funding is urgently received, 31 of the UN’s 41 major humanitarian programmes, will either reduce or shut in coming weeks. Health partners require hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars for COVID-19 programmes,” Grande said.– NNN-SABA
