Medical professionals, activists and victims’ families say that about 40 people with coronavirus symptoms died Tuesday in the interim capital of Aden. 

The sources said that the hospitals of Al-Jumhoriyah in Khourmaksar district and Al-Sadaqa in Al-Sheikh Othman district, as well as Al-Wali, Al-Naqeeb, German Aden and Al-Buraihi hospitals in Al-Mansoura district received about 30 cases in total of suspected coronavirus cases, with most patients exhibiting lung infections, respiratory problems and fevers. 

Medical professionals told Almasdar Online that the hospitals remaining open lack COVID-19 tests, ventilators and personal protection equipment (PPE) such as masks, gowns and gloves. 

The shortage of PPE and training on how to handle coronavirus cases has led doctors and nurses around the city to stop showing up for their shifts. At least three of the city’s hospitals have shut down, citing their lack of resources to handle such cases. 

In addition to the 30 patients with coronavirus symptoms who passed away in the hospitals on Tuesday, 10 patients with suspected coronavirus have died in their homes in recent days after being turned away from hospitals or unable to find ones that were open. 

Salem Al-Yafei, the grandson of an elderly man in his 70s from Khourmaksar district, said his grandfather died at Al-Nour hospital in Al-Mansoura district in northern Aden, after a number of hospitals refused to admit him. He said his grandfather had a high fever, malaria and later suffered a stroke. He is unsure if his grandfather had contracted the virus. 

A relative of a man in his 60s from Al-Sheikh Othman district who died at Al-Jumhoriya hospital last Saturday, as a result of needing fluids removed from his lungs, said that family took him to the hospitals of Al-Buraihi, Al-Wali and Al-Naqeeb in Al-Mansoura district, but all three facilities refused to receive them.

Family members later sent the elderly relative to Al-Jumhoriya hospital, where he passed away. 

On Monday, the spokesman for the Supreme National Emergency Committee for Coronavirus said that 49 people in Aden had died of fevers, the first such announcement by health authorities following the increase in unexplained deaths in the interim capital. 

The uncertainty around the deaths of these people, who had not been tested for COVID-19, has contributed to coronavirus-related fears in Aden.  

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Edited by Ahlam Mohsen and Casey Coombs