Dikhyaa Mohanty 
More than 40 people have died after a fire broke out in a Covid-19 isolation ward at a hospital in Iraq. The blaze at the Al-Hussein hospital in the southern city of Nasiriya was brought under control.
According to the BBC report, the cause of the fire is unclear, but initial it is reported that it began after an oxygen tank exploded. The charred bodies were carried out of the building and the rescuers are still searching for survivors.
The report further added that protesters demonstrated outside the hospital after the fire, and people posted on social media demanding the resignation of officials.
Health official Haydar al-Zamili stated that there are fears people are still trapped inside the ward, which reportedly has space for 60 patients.
Iraq’s parliament speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi tweeted that the blaze was “clear proof of the failure to protect Iraqi lives, and it is time to put an end to this catastrophic failure”.
Iraq has recorded 1.4 million infections and reported more than 17,000 deaths from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. While the country has given at least one dose of a vaccine against Covid to just over one million of its roughly 40 million citizens, the World Health Organization says.
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