Jordan’s health minister resigned on Saturday after at least six patients died in the wing of a hospital reserved for COVID-19 patients due to lack of medical oxygen, state media reported.
Early on Saturday, the country’s prime minister, Bisher al-Khasawneh, ordered an investigation into the deaths at the hospital in Salt, a town 20 kilometers (13 miles) north of the capital Amman.
The president requested the resignation of the head of Health, Nathir Obeidat, according to the media and the newspaper Al-Rai, a government spokesman, confirmed it.
Around 150 relatives of patients gathered outside the hospital, which was guarded by a large number of agents who prevented them from entering.
Jordan, a Middle Eastern kingdom of 10 million people, is fighting a spike in coronavirus infections and deaths as it tries to get vaccines. Since the start of the pandemic, it has reported more than 465,000 infections and more than 5,200 deaths.
Last month, authorities tightened restrictions and again decreed a weekend lockdown and night curfews to try to curb the virus.
Jordan began its vaccination campaign in mid-January with the goal of vaccinating more than 4 million residents in 2021. On Friday, it received 144,000 doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford through the COVAX initiative.
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