COVID-19: Yemen begins vaccination campaign in government-controlled areas

Yemen's internationally recognised government on Tuesday announced the start of its vaccination program, offering COVID-19 vaccine shots to priority groups in governorates under its control.

Yemen has a batch of 360,000 AstraZeneca vaccines it received under the UN's COVAX program. It will receive a total of 2 million dozes this year.

"Today, together with several government ministers, UNICEF and WHO representatives, and representatives of other international orgsations, we received a batch of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the temporary capital Aden, so we can start the vaccination campaign in Yemen," the Aden-based administration's Health Minister Qassem Baheeh tweeted.

Health workers, the elderly and those with chronic conditions, will be first in line to get inoculated in 13 of Yemen's 21 governorates. The rest of the country is controlled by the rebel Houthi movement and thus out of reach.

Yemen's health system, already excessively strained by the civil war, has been unable to cope with the coronavirus pandemic on its own. Cases on government-controlled territories have been on the rise since February, while the Houthis do not publish COVID-19 statistics for their part of the country. (/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )