At least seven COVID-19 patients were killed when oxygen ran out of a hospital in Jordan – while the country’s health minister was quickly fired when protests erupted across the Middle East kingdom.
The state hospital in Salt City had no oxygen for at least two hours on Saturday morning, and people were seen storming in with portable devices when people died in the COVID-19 ward.
According to Reuters, Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh has fired Health Minister Nathir Obeidat, although other reports say he has resigned.
As angry family members and protesters gathered outside the hospital, King Abdullah paid a visit to defuse tensions – and ordered the hospital’s director, Abdel Razak al-Khashman, to resign.
In video footage posted online, Abdullah shook his head when he asked the hospital director, ‘How can something like this happen? This is unacceptable, “said Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to the director, there are at least five staff members in the hospital who were detained late Saturday, the wire service said.
“We want to prosecute those responsible and then drop the government,” said Ahmad Hiyari, one of hundreds of protesters near the hospital, about 13 kilometers north of the capital Amman.
The outrage soon sparked other protests in many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns, sparking outrage over locks and curfews, which reported 486,470 cases and more than 5,428 deaths.
‘Off with the government. We are not afraid of the coronavirus, ”hundreds of youths chanted in Irbid, one of the many protests across the kingdom where ten million people live.
With Post threads