Mon 04 May 2020:
So far Yemen has been lucky – there’s only been a handful of cases.
The first was in the southern province of Hadramawt. Five more have since been confirmed in Aden, according to the emergency committee set up to oversee the pandemic.
The WHO says all the necessary contact-tracing took place. A total of 177 people were alerted – including 36 deemed high risk. But none of the experts expect it to end there.
Aside from the lack of equipment, there’s the worry about public health awareness – or rather a lack of it.
With government weakened through war, there aren’t the strong preventative messages put out by the authorities as in other countries.
Yemen’s health system is in a state of collapse – leaving it unlikely to be able to cope with an outbreak of coronavirus.
According to official from the Department of Epidemiological Surveillance in the Yemeni province of Lahj, “We don’t have enough infra-red temperature measuring devices; there’s a shortage of swabs for diagnosis and even the surveillance teams in the area do not have an ambulance to use for any suspected cases.”
“You’ll know about the deteriorating health situation in Yemen – especially after conflict and war. Hospitals here are limited and not equipped to receive coronavirus cases.”
“We lack adequate PPE (personal protection equipment). Rapid response teams have received training in Covid-19 case management but they do not possess personal protection. The WHO [World Health Organization] must fill this void.”
Yemen currently has only 208 ventilators; another 417 are supposed to be on their way. It’s a long way short of the many thousands being gathered or manufactured by developed countries.
Figures from the WHO show there are just four labs for the whole country that do coronavirus testing. A fifth is due to come online soon.
Supplies and personnel shut out of the country since Yemen’s airspace closed in mid-March.
Amid the fear of contagion, there was a glimmer of hope in April when a unilateral ceasefire was announced by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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