WEB DESK
At least 44 people were killed and over 67 injured in a fire likely caused by an explosion in oxygen tank at a coronavirus hospital in Nassiriya, in Iraq
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi held urgent meetings with senior ministers and ordered the suspension and arrest of health and civil defense managers in Nassiriya. The manager of the hospital was also suspended and ordered to be arrested.
Already decimated by war and sanctions, Iraq’s healthcare system has struggled to cope with the coronavirus crisis, which has killed 17,592 people and infected more than 1.4 million.
In April, a fire caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a COVID-19 hospital in Baghdad killed at least 82 people and injured 110 others.