As rescuers combed the smoke-charred building in search of more bodies, 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, his office said in a statement.
The manager of the hospital was also suspended and ordered to be arrested, the statement added.
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.
“Health crews carried charred bodies out of the burning hospital while many patients were coughing from the rising smoke,” a Reuters reporter at the site of the fire said.
Health officials at Nassiriya said search operations at the al-Hussain coronavirus hospital were continuing after the fire was brought under control, but thick smoke was making it difficult to enter some of the burnt wards.
“Raging fires have trapped many patients inside the coronavirus ward and rescue teams are struggling to reach them,” a health worker told the media before entering the burning building.
Haydar al-Zamili, the local health authority’s spokesperson, said early Tuesday morning that 52 bodies were retrieved and another 22 people were wounded in the latest toll, after the fire had “ripped through the COVID-19 isolation ward”.
“The victims died of burns and the search is continuing,” he said, noting that there were fears victims could still be trapped inside the building. The ward had space for 70 beds.
“The catastrophe of Al-Hussein Hospital is clear proof of the failure to protect the lives of Iraqis, and it is time to put an end to this,” wrote Mohamed al-Halbousi, Iraq’s Parliament Speaker, on Twitter.
Iraq’s interior ministry said on Facebook late Monday that the fire tore through temporary structures erected next to the main building, but did not specify the cause.
