By Haydar Karaalp
BAGHDAD (AA) - The number of people who were killed in a fire that engulfed the COVID-19 isolation ward of a hospital in southern Iraq has risen to 41, the Iraqi Health Ministry said early Tuesday.
Five more people lost their lives in the fire that broke out at Al-Hussein Hospital in Nasiriya city in Dhi Qar governorate, the ministry said in a statement.
The fire was caused by the misuse of oxygen cylinders, it added.
Local civil defense forces announced that firefighters had brought the blaze under control.
A previous statement said that five others were injured in the fire.
Earlier Monday, a fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Ministry of Health in central Baghdad.