Jordan hospital oxygen outage kills at least 6 patients

At least six people died in Jordan after an oxygen outage in a hospital treating coronavirus patients, prompting police to be deployed to hold back angry relatives who had gathered at the gate, witnesses and medical sources said on Saturday.

The sources said it was not clear what caused the oxygen failure in intensive care, maternity units and coronavirus wards in the new Salt government hospital west of the capital Amman.

Health Minister Nathir Obeidat earlier visited the hospital and was meeting staff as security forces cordoned off the area to prevent trouble among patients' relatives.

Jordan is facing a spike in COVID-19 infections attributed mainly to the fast transmission of the British variant of the virus. It announced last week stricter measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reimposed a full lockdown on Fridays.

The country reported 8,300 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic first surfaced in the kingdom a year ago.