NPR

In Iraq, Rising Virus Cases And Oxygen Shortages Stoke Outrage, Fears Of 'Chaos'

Crowds have seized supplies for ill relatives, and officials warn the health system could collapse. "This is a war against the coronavirus and we have lost the war," says an Iraqi official.
People wait for COVID-19 tests at a hospital in Baghdad on June 4.

Coronavirus cases are spiking sharply in Iraq amid a shortage of supplies that has resulted in protesters storming an oxygen cylinder factory and relatives of patients seizing oxygen canisters in hospitals.

"This is a war against the coronavirus and we have lost the war," says an Iraqi official who has been briefed on the government's response to the pandemic.

The official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, tells NPR the true number

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