Yemen's government announced on Saturday adopting a number of measures to curb a potential outbreak of COVID-19 in the war-ravaged Arab country.

The government's national ministerial committee approved a number of precautionary measures including tightening up surveillance and diagnosis by the health authorities, said a statement released by the state-run Saba News Agency.

It added that the country's Foreign Affairs Ministry decided to temporarily suspend issuing visas for foreigners wishing to visit Yemen.

It also urged foreigners to clearly disclose whether they have previously visited Iran or other countries affected by the coronavirus during the past 14 days upon their arrival in Yemen.

In addition, the Yemeni government called on all of its citizens to abide by the ban on travel to Iran "under any circumstances."

To date, the Yemeni authorities have not yet reported a single case of the novel coronavirus in the country's war-ravaged provinces.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of much of the country's north and forced the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of capital Sanaa.