Despite there being no confirmed cases of the novelcoronavirus in the country, Yemen is taking several precautionarymeasures to prevent an outbreak.
"No cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Yemenso far," Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said in a speech broadcasted onthe cabinet's official YouTube on Thursday.
"We must, however, take the situation very seriously and notunderestimate it, because the country is facing complex crises."
An "explosion" in the number of cases in Yemen is likely,the head of the department for combating infectious diseases at the WorldHealth Organization's (WHO) office in the Eastern Mediterranean said in aCNN interview.
The WHO is concerned about countries like Yemen, because theabsence of any confirmed cases points to poor healthcare and a weak monitoringsystem, said Abd al-Nasser Abu Bakr.
A quarantine facility has been established in the capitalAden to ensure that health aid workers are equipped and ready to respond incase of a coronavirus outbreak, the WHO office in Yemen said on Wednesday.
The government will be launching an initiative for anational fund to help combat coronavirus and finance the infrastructure needsfor the health sector, the prime minister announced.
