Multinationals Contribute Coronavirus Equipment for Yemen

Tons of equipment for coronavirus testing is being donated to Yemen by Unilever, Tetra Pak, the Yemen-based HSA Group, the Yemen Private Sector Cluster and the country’s chambers of commerce. The equipment in the first shipment, due to arrive next week, includes 20,000 rapid-test kits, 24,000 test kits for nucleic acids, five centrifuges and other supplies that will enable some 85,000 tests to be carried out. The donors belong to the International Initiative on COVID-19 in Yemen, or IICY, a charitable effort aimed at preventing the pandemic from further ravaging the war-torn country. The United Nations has declared Yemen as being on the brink of a catastrophe due to war-caused shortages in food and medicine, with about 80% of its 30 million people urgently requiring some form of humanitarian assistance. “Yemen’s healthcare infrastructure will not be able to cope with the pressure placed on the system by COVID-19. We all fear that the result will be a major loss of life,” said IICY chairman Nabil Hayel Saeed Anam in a statement. Other equipment due in Yemen as part of the initiative includes 225 ventilators and half a million masks.