Ministry of Public Health and Population called on the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator on Wednesday to keep up with the health situation in Yemen and increase support for health facilities in the governorates, thus contributing to the prevention of the coronavirus.
Minister of Health Dr. Taha Al-Mutawakkil, in a letter addressed to the Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande, in response to her statement about the acceleration of humanitarian agencies to assist the authorities in confronting the Covid-19 in Yemen.
“Grande claimed that 520 ICU beds were provided while no ICU beds were ever supplied, but 96 normal beds were not even suitable for lying departments,” Al-Mutawakkil said.
The Minister of Health pointed out that what was distributed with regard to respirators, is 94 devices that had been ordered two years ago for other diseases, which related to obstetric emergencies, diphtheria and cholera, and not as Grande said that 208 respirators were distributed.
The letter emphasized that no oxygen cylinders were supplied to the health facilities, nor the medical devices for the intensive care rooms, although they must be available.
Al-Mutawakkil pointed out that it was agreed with the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization to distribute 39 breathing apparatus in their stores, but this was not done.
The letter also clarified that Grande said that the WHO purchased 1000 care beds in addition to 400 breathing apparatus, demanding their supply quickly. He stressed that despite this, this does not respond to the urgent need that exceeds 10 thousand intensive care beds and their accessories from the respirator and monitor and other devices and supplies.
The Minister of Health’s letter confirmed Yemen’s need for 500,000 corona testing devices in an emergency manner and 10 million testing devices in the second stage, indicating that only 3,400 devices were received.
With regard to training and rehabilitation, the Minister of Health indicated that what Grande mentioned about training 10,000 volunteers and 900 health personnel, did not happen and what was done was to train a number of doctors and not start training the volunteers.
“Regarding what Grandi said that there is an increase of 999 response teams, what has been increased is one team for each district,” he said. “We hope to increase the teams to 12 per district.”
The letter mentioned that personal protection supplies were provided only in a small amount that does not exceed 1 percent of the need that was circulated to organizations and other bodies at this stage.
In the letter, the Minister of Public Health and Population reaffirmed his readiness to communicate with all relevant authorities to provide the necessary facilities to international organizations.
