A member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council (SPC), an unrecognized executive body run by the Houthi rebel movement, died on Tuesday in the capital of Sanaa three days after contracting COVID-19, a local medical source told Sputnik on Wednesday
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2020) A member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council (SPC), an unrecognized executive body run by the Houthi rebel movement, died on Tuesday in the capital of Sanaa three days after contracting COVID-19, a local medical source told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The SPC's media adviser, Ahmad Mohammed Ali al-Hubaishi, died on Tuesday evening in Sanaa three days after coronavirus-related symptoms appeared, the source said.
According to the source, the adviser's health condition deteriorated in his last hours of life, during which he was undergoing treatment after testing positive for COVID-19.
Al-Hubaishi was a member of the first Yemeni parliament after the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, also known as South Yemen, was united with the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, in May 1990. According to various information resources, the official also held the position of editor-in-chief of the Arabic 14 October daily newspaper published in Yemen's port city of Aden and served as the information department head in the General People's Congress, a dominant Yemeni political party.
In early May, the Yemeni information minister of the country's legitimate government, Moammar al-Eryani, called on the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) to put pressure on the Houthi rebels to provide actual and real data on COVID-19 patients in the movement-controlled areas to avoid a new health crisis in the already war-torn country. In late May, the group reportedly accused WHO of sending "inaccurate" and deficient tests to detect the disease.
So far, the Houthis have confirmed only four COVID-19 cases, with two recoveries and one coronavirus-related death.
The government's Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed another 42 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total of those infected to 399, and the death count increasing to 87. The tally of recoveries has risen to 16.
