Deputy Speaker of Parliament: some ministries have abandoned their responsibilities

Shafaq News/ Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hassan Al-Kaabi said today that some ministries had "abandoned their responsibilities" towards the Iraqi people regarding confronting COVID-19.

Al-Kaabi said that the Parliamentary Crisis Cell held a meeting today following the increase in COVID-19 cases in Iraq, which reached more than 10,000 cases.

"The meeting was held to identify the reasons behind this surge and the needs of the Ministry of Health that is facing COVID-19 alone, without the support of the ministries, agencies, and institutions that have relinquished their responsibility towards the Iraqi people."

He added that the number of hospital beds had decreased following the fires that broke out in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital in Baghdad and Al-Hussein in Dhi Qar, stressing the need to support the Ministry of Health and allocate the necessary funds to cover medicines, help the hospital administration and control the security aspect to reduce the occurrence of accidents.

"The natural treatment to confront the pandemic is to take the vaccine, hoping that the Ministries of Interior and Defense and the Traffic Directorate will help the Ministry of Health in implementing the preventive measures.

Al-Kaabi added that the crisis cell decided to hold the security authorities responsible for any accident or assault on healthcare professionals," noting that the Ministry of Health confirmed that oxygen cylinders are fully secured.