Grande: Health systems in Yemen must deal with Covid 19 in a race against time

SANAA, April 24 (YPA) – The United Nations coordinator said that humanitarian agencies are rushing to help the authorities in Yemen to curb the spread of the new corona virus (Covid 19), and to prepare and provide facilities in the event of people getting sick with the virus.
“A race against time, the risk of the Covid-19 virus is very scary, and we must do everything we can to stop its spread, and help people who may become infected,” the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, said in a statement.

She added “the difficulties are great and the operating conditions are constrained, they are paralyzed in some places and there are not enough resources.”
“Funding will remain limited until donors see that the authorities have allowed us to do our job in the right way, in accordance with the same principles that are respected all over the world,” Grande said.
“Facing the Covid-19 virus will be very difficult in Yemen after five years of war, the debilitating siege and the collapse of public salaries,” she added.
“It is unrealistic to expect the already functioning health systems, which have been disrupted in many areas, to respond to a crisis the size of Covid-19,” the UN official added.
The statement pointed out that “the World Health Organization is working on funding 333 of rapid response teams distributed in all directorates of Yemen, in order to detect, evaluate, inform and respond to suspected cases of infection with the Corona virus.”
The statement quoted the country director of the World Health Organization, Lotf Musani as saying: “The goal is to increase the number of teams to up to 999 teams, three times the existing detection capabilities.”
According to the statement, the organization is preparing and improving specialized isolation units in 37 hospitals all over Yemen that have been designated by the authorities to isolate Covid-19 cases.