Yemen’s health system ‘has in effect collapsed’ as COVID spreads: U.N.

The new coronavirus is believed to be spreading throughout Yemen where the health care system “has in effect collapsed”, the United Nations said on Friday, appealing for urgent funding.

“Aid agencies in Yemen are operating on the basis that community transmission is taking place across the country,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a Geneva briefing.

“We hear from many of them that Yemen is really on the brink right now. The situation is extremely alarming, they are talking about that the health system has in effect collapsed,” he said.