the people here are no longer afraid of
the bullets they've learned to live with
war starvation and cholera and now
there's a new threat one that shattered
the world's most developed countries
coronavirus in Yemen the first official
case of kovat 19 was announced on April
10th
since then schools of cases have been
detected across the country were half of
all the medical facilities have been
destroyed by war the Kuwait hospital is
still operating it's said to be the best
equipped in Sanaa
to receive patients with kovat 19
the BBC has gained access to it
NASA Mira knows how dangerous the virus
is in such a fragile health system
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static Karuna you Janine is - it at the
peril of article J woman's attack on a
sub - got the remote doesn't care either
whatever can stick with a one man Hannah
I was special warhead
Marcus I'm gonna move on there are only
200 ventilators for a population of
nearly 30 million people the Houthi
movement based in the north of the
country has only announced two cases and
one death in Sanaa but our sources tell
us that the situation is more dire that
there have been schools of kovat 19
cases and deaths and son are alone and
the UN warns that the virus could be
spreading undetected in Yemen
oh well Harlequin was reporting on the
corona virus has been banned by the
authorities videos like this one have
been circulating on social media
yet across the country there have been
few containment measures to keep the
pandemic at bay in some neighborhoods
mosques were closed and markets shut
down but others are still terrifyingly
crowded
here in this quarantine Center health
workers are scrambling to there is so
much to do in a country that's already
the world's worst humanitarian crisis
[Music]
the people here are acutely malnourished
cholera and diphtheria waves have ripped
through the country over the years it's
left the population with one of the
lowest levels of immunity to disease in
the world that's not all clean water is
a scarce commodity in Yemen washing
hands a simple rule to prevent the
spread of infection is almost impossible
more than 24 million people survive on
humanitarian aid that's been hampered by
the saudi-led coalition de-facto
blockade and now American aid officials
decided to halt funding cutting off
about seventy million dollars in
assistance destined for people in the
Houthi controlled northern part of the
country US aid says the Houthis are to
blame so we know that the US has pulled
a lot of its humanitarian funding to
northern Yemen tell me what impact
that's going to have on the coronavirus
response by NGOs in Yemen Yemen is
particularly unique to Coba 19 and
already in Yemen to deliver aid to help
prop up failing health systems the
authorities have made it incredibly
difficult and it tried to interfere in
our work where there's a risk that Aid
isn't gonna go where it's supposed to go
and those programs and keep the aid
flowing to people who need it most
otherwise it's Yemenis who are living in
fear of covet 19 who will suffer the
most
despite a ceasefire designed to help the
country focus on containing the virus
fighting has continued this war has
brought Yemen to its knees and now with
a deadly pandemic
there is no sign of relief for the
people here no Alan McGuffey BBC news