A UN spokesperson said that the health care system in Yemen has virtually collapsed, and that the organization is dealing with the assumption that the Corona virus has spread widely in the country.
"Relief organizations in Yemen are operating on the basis that there is a local outbreak across the country," said Jens Lierke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in a statement in Geneva.
"We hear from many of them that Yemen is now on the brink. The situation is deeply troubling and they are talking about the fact that the health system has virtually collapsed," he added.
Laerke pointed out that aid workers said they had to refuse to help people, because they did not have enough medical oxygen or an adequate supply of personal protective equipment.
He said that a flight carrying international relief workers landed in Aden on Tuesday after opening the airspace alternately, adding that Yemeni citizens are doing most of the field work.
The charitable organization "Doctors Without Borders" said yesterday that the main center for treating corona in southern Yemen, which it runs, monitored at least 68 deaths in about two weeks.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister, Muhammad al-Hadrami, acknowledged the Yemeni government's inability to cope with the outbreak of the Corona virus, in light of what he described as obstacles to the transitional council and the cover-up of the Houthi group.
Al-Hadrami described the Houthis as having taken "Iran's approach with unjustified and irresponsible cover-up on large cases of Corona in their areas of control."
He also mentioned the obstacles of the Emirati-backed transitional council due to the continued armed rebellion in the temporary capital.
A human rights warning
, for its part, Human Rights Watch warned of an increased risk faced by displaced people in Yemen in light of the spread of the Corona virus. The organization said that more than half a million people are at risk as the battles approach the overcrowded camps for the displaced in Marib, north of Yemen.
The organization warned that in light of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the deteriorating health system and the imminent threat of an outbreak of cholera, the displaced people in Ma'rib face a double threat of renewed fighting and the spread of the Coruna virus.
She also indicated that the danger is also increasing for millions of Yemenis whose lives depend on relief, in light of the shrinking of foreign aid.
The organization called on the parties to the conflict in Yemen to protect civilians and work with donors to prevent what it described as a major catastrophe.
The latest data published by the World Health Organization revealed that the Yemeni authorities informed the organization that it had detected 184 cases and thirty deaths in the virus. But Laerke said: "The actual number is definitely much higher."
He added that the United Nations says it will seek to raise two billion dollars to Yemen to maintain the continuation of relief programs until the end of this year.