Local Editor
Yemen has reported its first coronavirus case in a southern province, raising fears of catastrophic consequences in a healthcare system broken by five years of war.
"The first confirmed case of coronavirus has been reported in Hadramout province," the supreme national emergency committee for COVID-19 said on Twitter on Friday.
The committee, run by the resigned regime of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said the infected patient was in stable condition and receiving care.
The large southern province of Hadramout has seen some of the worst pockets of malnutrition and disease in the war-torn country.
Control of Hadramout has long been divided. Hadi loyalists backed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition control the coastal towns, but parts of the interior remain in the hands of al-Qaeda fighters.
The committee said medical teams and concerned authorities had taken all necessary precautions and promised to release further details on the coronavirus case later Friday.
The victim was a Yemeni working in the port of al-Shihr, a local official told Reuters news agency.
Yemen has been mired in violence since Yemen’s Houthi movement overthrew the Hadi regime in late 2014, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene. The five-year-old conflict has killed more than 100,000 and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
Source: Al-Jazeera News , Edited by Website Team
