Aden – As second waves and new strains of the COVID-19 virus take hold of the world, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) continues to support local infection prevention and control measures in Yemen, while also ensuring 17 health centres have capacity to provide treatment to vulnerable communities.

“Although reporting of COVID-19 cases in Yemen is low, the lack of functioning health facilities is extremely concerning with more infectious and deadly strains of the virus taking the pandemic to another alarming level globally,” said Christa Rottensteiner, the IOM Chief of Mission in Yemen.

As part of its COVID-19 response, IOM has constructed one isolation and treatment centre in Marib city and two quarantine centres in heavily populated displacement sites the governorate. The last of which was recently handed over to the local authorities.

To support testing capacity, IOM imported six GeneXpert machines into Yemen, which can provide COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results in under an hour. The machines are easy to set up and so they can be moved to new locations across the country based on the needs of the pandemic response. This is important as difficulties in transporting test samples long distances or from isolated areas to existing public health laboratories often causes delays in test results or prevents suspected COVID-19 cases from being able to undertake a test.

IOM is coordinating with the Ministry of Public Health and the Health Cluster to ensure that these machines are sent to locations that are in the greatest need of testing capacity. The first location will be Al Mokha in Taizz governorate. The machine will be placed alongside the existing COVID-19 treatment centre there to ensure that suspected cases are able to obtain accurate test results in a timely fashion. Currently samples must be sent by road to either Aden or Taizz Public Health Laboratories, both several hours drive away and with inconsistent road access.

“As the humanitarian community in Yemen prepares for additional waves of COVID-19, testing is key to fighting this infectious disease. If people know they are positive, they can self-isolate to not spread the virus further and seek the treatment that they need to recover,” added Rottensteiner.

Prior to bringing in the GeneXpert machines, IOM had also been importing personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers’ use across the country.

Understanding the disease, how to prevent it and how to treat it, is vital. Given this, as part of efforts to protect health workers and ensure an appropriate COVID-19 response, IOM continues to roll out COVID-19 case management and prevention trainings, reaching 116 health workers in Marib in December. IOM has already trained staff from the National tuberculous (TB) Lab in Aden on COVID-19 testing using GeneXpert machines and will train additional staff in all new locations using the machines.

While there is a pandemic raging, it is also important that people suffering from other illnesses can receive treatment. IOM support to 17 health care facilities in eight governorates across Yemen ensures that they have resources, equipment, medicine and workers.

IOM’s support to the health system in Yemen comes in addition to its support to the COVID-19 response in other sectors like water, sanitation and hygiene.

For more information, please contact IOM Yemen:

Arabic: Mennatallah Homaid, Tel: +967739888755, Email: mhomaid@iom.int   

English: Olivia Headon, Tel: +251926379755, WhatsApp: +967730552233, Email: oheadon@iom.int