Yemen Hails Arrival of First Vaccines

Yemen on Wednesday received its first batch of coronavirus vaccines, as a plane loaded with 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca shots landed in Aden, offering some much-needed yet still limited relief to the stricken country. A week after the internationally recognized government declared a health emergency, local volunteer and aid groups welcomed the first shipment of jabs, scheduled to reach nearly 2 million in the coming months. Though official numbers are hard to come by due to the ongoing devastating civil war, Yemen is believed to have been hit hard by the global pandemic. The donated vaccines, distributed through the COVAX program aimed at providing inoculations to poor nations, will first be offered to “those most at risk, including health workers, so that they can safely continue to provide lifesaving interventions for children and families,” Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, said. The still-raging six-year war has turned Yemen into the worst humanitarian situation in the world today.