Jordan’s health minister was dismissed from his post on Saturday after seven patients died after running out of oxygen at a hospital that treated patients with covid-19. Police must have contained hundreds of angry parents, according to witness reports and local media.
The collapse in the oxygen supply has hit the intensive care unit, maternity ward and covid-19 ward of the new al-Hussain hospital in the city of Salt, west of the country’s capital, Amman.
Prime Minister Bisher al Khaswaneh announced that he had dismissed Minister of Health Nathir Obeidat. In a statement, the prime minister said his government had taken full responsibility for the incident.
In Brazil, more than 30 people have died after running out of oxygen in hospitals in Manaus in mid-January. Although several documents indicate that the Ministry of Health was aware of the impending collapse and was omitted, the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, remains in office. At the time, President Jair Bolsonaro stepped aside and said: “We have gone beyond what we are obligated to do.” the shortage by the government of Amazonas and the company that supplied the oxygen.
In Jordan, Health Minister Obeidat said he had taken “moral responsibility” for the deaths of patients, who were undergoing treatment for covid-19 when the hospital was left without an oxygen supply for nearly one o’clock.
“This is a gross mistake that we can neither accept nor justify. I am ashamed of it,” said Prime Minister Khaswaneh, who is awaiting the results of a judicial inquiry.
King Abdullah went to the hospital to try to ease the tensions. “How can that happen in a hospital like this?” Asked the king, entering the hospital which cost millions of dollars and entered service in August of last year.
Jordan, which has a population of around 10 million, has recorded 385,533 cases of covidus and 5,224 deaths.
(With writing)