Dozens of people died – VG

According to the news agency, the fire was caused by an explosion in the oxygen tanks in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital, which are used to treat seriously ill Corona patients.

to me Washington Post Patients received life-saving treatment when the fire spread from the oxygen store to the ICU.

Iraq declared three days of mourning after the fire.

I do not know how many victims there are. There are many burnt bodies everywhere, according to Doctor Sabah Al-Kawza’i To the AP News Agency.

It is currently unclear how many people died in the fire, but Reuters news agency cited sources in several nearby hospitals that at least 27 people died.

The hospital had 120 patients when the fire started, and the Iraqi Civil Defense told the official news agency ANI that about 90 people had been rescued alive.

Civil Defense spokesman Kazem Bohan said most of the victims were elderly people on ventilators Washington Post.

– They couldn’t move. Local residents rushed to the hospital to try to save people.

– The majority of the victims died because they had to move them and transport them with masks, while others suffocated due to smoke. He continues, according to the island.

Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital is located southeast of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Several ambulances were seen driving to the hospital at full speed after the accident, Reuters wrote.

According to Agence France-Presse, images on social media show firefighters desperately trying to put out the fire in the hospital while patients and relatives try to escape.

Inquiry into orders

The patients who were rescued alive were taken to nearby hospitals.

“I want to express my condolences to the martyrs of the tragic accident at Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi wrote on Twitter.

He has ordered a full investigation into the accident and stated that those responsible for safety are in the hospital It is kept pending the investigation until the end of the investigation.

An unnamed doctor at the hospital told the Washington Post that the hospital’s oxygen tanks were kept without thinking about their safety.

Iraq is going through a strong wave of infections: As many as 8,000 cases were recorded on a daily basis recently – the highest number since the start of the epidemic. In total, more than 1 million cases of infection have been recorded in the country. 15,217 deaths were recorded.

to me Washington Post The country’s healthcare system was already under severe stress even before the Coronavirus pandemic.

The newspaper spoke to doctors who said they were forced to work in under-staffed wards, despite the fact that they themselves had coronavirus. Others talk about outdated equipment and poor conditions for patients.

In the shadow of war: Corona disaster in Iraq and Syria

Vaccination began in March, and the country has so far received 650,000 doses of various vaccines, most of them through donations and the Covax program, according to NTB.

However, skepticism about the country’s health service is high after decades of conflict and many corruption scandals, and the authorities must Washington Post They find it difficult to get vaccinated voluntarily.