WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Well over half of Yemen’s population, or 16 million residents, could be infected with the novel coronavirus, Yemen Social Fund for Development Monitoring and Evaluation Head Lamis Al-Iryani said in an event live-streamed by the United States Institute of Peace.
The official number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Yemen is 17 with 12 deaths, while the global number of cases has exceeded 4.4 million with nearly 300,000 deaths.
Al-Iryani said infection numbers in Yemen were grossly misrepresented by the inadequacies of testing.
“It has been reported that some hospitals have denied access to several suspected cases due to fear of the spread of infection”, she added.
Al-Iryani said five years of war in Yemen has also put the country at a greater risk to the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation says Yemenis have among the lowest levels of immunity to diseases compared with people from other countries, making them far more vulnerable to a pandemic like the COVID-19.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
