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At Least 23 Dead in Fire at Iraqi COVID Hospital, Doctors, Security Sources
Say

Agence France-Presse

   BAGHDAD - At least 23 people died when a fire broke out in a
   coronavirus intensive care unit in Baghdad, medical and security
   sources told AFP.

   The explosion was caused by "a fault in the storage of oxygen
   cylinders," the medical sources said, adding that several dozen people
   had also been wounded.

   Videos on social media showed firefighters trying to extinguish flames
   at Ibn al-Khatib hospital on the southeastern outskirts of the Iraqi
   capital as patients and their relatives tried to flee the building.

   The civil defense told Iraqi state news that it had "rescued 90 people
   out of 120 patients and their relatives" at the scene, but it would not
   give the exact number of dead and wounded.

   On Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 1 million in Iraq
   , with the health ministry recording a total of 1,025,288 cases of the
   disease and 15,217 deaths since the first infections were reported in
   the country in February 2020.

   The ministry has said it carries out around 40,000 tests daily from a
   population of 40 million.

   Iraq's hospitals have been worn down by decades of conflict and poor
   investment, with shortages in medicines and hospital beds.

   Those patients who can often prefer to source oxygen tanks for
   treatment at home, rather than go to overcrowded and run-down
   hospitals.