At least 82 dead – VG

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Sunday that 82 people had died and 110 were injured after the fire on Saturday, Reuters reports.

According to the news agency, the fire is due to an explosion in oxygen tanks at Ibn Khatib Hospital, which is used to treat seriously ill corona patients.

According to Washington Post the patients received life-saving treatment when the fire spread from the oxygen storage and on to the intensive care unit.

Iraq has declared a three-day mourning period after the fire.

“I do not know how many victims there are, there are so many burnt bodies everywhere,” said doctor Sabah al-Kuzaie. to the news agency AP on Saturday.

The hospital had 120 patients when it started burning, and the Iraqi civil defense tells the state news agency ANI that around 90 have been rescued alive.

The victims are mainly elderly people on respirators, says civil defense spokesman Kadhim Bohan Washington Post.

– They could not move. Locals rushed to the hospital to try to rescue people.

– The majority of the victims died because they had to be moved and were taken by the respirators, while others were suffocated by the smoke, he continues, according to Al Jazeera.

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

According to the news agency AFP, photos on social media show firefighters desperately trying to put out the flames at the hospital while patients and relatives try to get away.

Orders investigation

Patients who were rescued alive have been transferred to nearby hospitals.

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

He has ordered a full investigation of the accident, and states that the people responsible for safety at the hospital shall be remanded in custody until the investigation is completed.

On Sunday, it is also clear that the Iraqi prime minister has fired several health leaders, including the director of Ibn Khatib Hospital and the director of Baghdad’s health department in the al-Rusafa area where the hospital is located. It reports the news agency AP.

An unnamed doctor at the hospital tells the Washington Post that the oxygen tanks at the hospital were kept with little thought to safety.

Iraq is in the midst of a powerful wave of infections: Up to 8,000 cases have recently been recorded on a daily basis – the highest number since the start of the pandemic. In total, more than one million cases of infection have been registered in the country. 15,217 deaths have also been recorded.

According to Washington Post The country’s health care system was already under heavy pressure even before the corona pandemic.

The newspaper has spoken to doctors who say that they have been forced to work in understaffed wards despite the fact that they themselves are infected with corona. Others talk about outdated equipment and poor conditions for patients.

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

The vaccination started in March, and the country has so far received 650,000 doses of various vaccines, most through donations and the Covax program, writes NTB.

However, the skepticism of the health service in the country is great after decades of conflict and several corruption scandals, and the authorities must, according to Washington Post have trouble getting people to get vaccinated voluntarily.

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