YEMEN Press Agency

WHO accuses countries in Arab region of hiding information about numbers of people infected with corona

SANAA, March 18 (YPA) – World Health Organization (WHO) has accused countries in the Arab region of not providing them with sufficient information about new infections of the Coronavirus, “Covid-19”, on its land.
The Director of the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean at the World Health Organization, Ahmed Al-Manzari, said that there is a “variation” in the regional approach to the new epidemic crisis, stressing the need for more efforts in this area.

He continued: “It is unfortunate that to this day when the situation reaches a critical stage, the organization does not receive sufficient information about cases of infection from regional countries,” holding “some countries” in the region responsible for deliberately reducing the number of injuries in official reports.

Al-Manzari called on the Middle East countries to submit sufficient information to the World Health Organization on the status of the virus outbreak in their territories, explaining that this would allow the organization to better track the spread of the epidemic and implement public health measures quickly.

Al-Manzari pointed out that the UN organization notes efforts in the region that aim to strengthen supervision and increase checks and support families whose relatives are subject to isolation or press quarantine measures, noting at the same time that some regional countries are “not fully involved” in efforts to combat the virus.

He said: “Frankly, we see a disparity in the way countries in the region deal, and although we are seeing remarkable progress in some countries, not everyone has yet begun to adopt an approach that includes the government and society,” stressing that the time has come to take urgent steps.