People gather outside Ibn Khatib Hospital in Baghdad after the blast on Saturday night. Photo: THAIER AL-SUDANI / Reuters
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Corona patients on a respirator could not escape when the fire hit the hospital in Baghdad on Saturday, the Iraqi civil defense said. Dozens of patients must be dead.
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According to the news agency Reuters, the fire is due to an explosion in oxygen tanks at the 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.
It is currently very unclear how many people have lost their lives in the fire. Reuters quotes sources at nearby hospitals as saying that at least 27 are dead, while the news agency AFP writes that the confirmed number is 23.
– I do not know how many victims there are, there are so many burnt bodies everywhere, says doctor Sabah al-Kuzaie to the news agency AP.
—-EVACUATED: A covid patient from Ibn Khatib Hospital is evacuated to a nearby hospital after the fire. Photo: THAIER AL-SUDANI / Reuters
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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 save people, he says.
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.
This week, a hospital in India also experienced a tragedy, when several corona patients died after an oxygen leak:
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.
—-REQUIRED ANSWER: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Photo: Stefanie Loos / AFP POOL
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He has ordered a full investigation into the cause of the accident, and demands an answer within 24 hours.
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.
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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