Less than two percent of Yemenis have been vaccinated against Covid-19 more than 18 months after vaccines were rolled out across the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Statistics released by the WHO show that Yemen has one of the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates in the world, alongside Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The UN body said that Yemen had administered just 864,544 Covid-19 vaccines so far, the lowest figure in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO), which stretches from Morocco to Pakistan, but does not include Israel and Algeria.

According to the WHO, 11,914 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Yemen over the past two years and 2,152 deaths, figures that experts say is a gross undercount because of the country's failed healthcare system and the high cost of testing kits.