COVID-19

Yemen was among the last countries to announce the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first confirmed case in the country was declared on April 10, 2020, a month after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11. An explosion of infections was anticipated in Yemen, where six years of war has destroyed the healthcare sector and fragmented the country. The first wave of COVID-19 in Yemen coincided with outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, and chikungunya fever, diseases…

The COVID-19 virus is rapidly spreading in northern Yemen and the response of Houthi authorities – to publicly deny this reality and silence those who contradict them – has ensured vastly more Yemenis will needlessly suffer and die in the months to come. 

In separately defined containment measures, authorities in Sana’a and Aden closed sea, land and air ports as a precaution prior to the April 10 official reporting of Yemen’s first confirmed case of COVID-19. Since then, they have — separately — suspended school and university classes, set up quarantines and imposed social distancing measures.

A Yemeni patient, recently returned from Egypt, presented to the emergency room of a hospital in Aden this month with flu-like symptoms — a fever and a cough. After taking his history and a few other details, he was provisionally diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.