Deputy Education Minister Dr. Saleh Al-Soufi died early Monday of suspected coronavirus at Al-Jumhoriya hospital in the interim capital of Aden.

Announcing Al-Soufi’s death, Education Minister Abdullah Salem Lamlas said he had passed away from the “malicious disease.” 

Another government official, Moqbel Al-Qutaibi, died May 7 after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Al-Qutaibi was the head of Aden’s local authority department in President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s cabinet.

Yemen’s national coronavirus committee declared Aden an “infested city” this week, referring to the rising number of COVID-19 infections as well as other diseases outbreaks following flooding there.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said tests for coronavirus have arrived in Yemen and will be distributed across the country.

"A plane loaded with 14,000 tests … has arrived in Yemen and will be distributed throughout the republic," the WHO representative in Yemen, Altaf Musani, told Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Najib Al-Awj in a video call.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yemen on Monday announced the arrival of a second plane loaded with medical aid to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

The shipment includes medicine and materials to maintain Aden’s water treatment facilities, including anti-corrosives and water purification products. More aid is expected soon, according to ICRC. 

On Tuesday, the national coronavirus committee announced nine new cases of COVID-19 across five governorates: four in Aden, two in Lahj and one in each of Shabwa, Abyan and Al-Mahrah, bringing the total number of identified cases to 67 nationwide. Given the shortage of testing supplies and several other factors contributing to underreporting, the actual number of coronavirus infections is likely much higher. 

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Edited by Ahlam Mohsen