Yemen on Friday reported its first coronavirus case in Taiz governorate, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths in the war-torn country that lacks medical care.

The United Nations says it fears the novel coronavirus could be spreading undetected among an acutely malnourished population with inadequate testing capabilities.

"A new confirmed case of coronavirus was reported, the first in (southwestern) governorate of Taiz, in a man in his 40s," the national emergency coronavirus committee said in a Twitter post.

Yemen recorded its first case of COVID-19 in southern Hadharamout province on April 10. On Wednesday, it announced five infections in the southern port of Aden, with two deaths.