Ammon News -

Public prosecutors have completed investigations into a recent oxygen supply outage at the Salt Public Hospital, northwest, which left 7 coronavirus patients dead.

Four more officials have been arrested in the case and they are: the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health, Assistant Secretary-General for Health and Technical Affairs, Assistant Secretary-General for Services Affairs and Director of the Medical Engineering Directorate at the Ministry of Health, said Hassan Abdallat, Amman Public Prosecutor in a statement to Petra on Sunday.

The total number of those in custody over their involvement in the incident now stands at 13 and each one of them face seven counts of "involuntary manslaughter", Abdallat added.

He indicated that prosecutors had completed all investigations into the incident and heard from 66 public prosecution witnesses, in addition to the testimonies of 9 technical experts, including one from the prevention department in the Civil Defense, an expert to review CCTV recordings, an expert to review staff cameras, an expert to determine the interruption period of oxygen supply to ventilators, an expert on medical gas systems, an expert to determine the cause of death for those whose health deteriorated as a result of the incident, an expert on lung and chest disease, a Building Management System expert and a forensic medicine expert to determine the causes of death.

According to Abdallat, the public prosecution reviewed 20 documents "containing the evidence" against the defendants.

He indicated that all evidence prove that there was negligence, lack of caution and lack of observance of laws and regulations by all of the defendants, including those from the ministry of health and the hospital, which led to the running out of oxygen from the hospital’s tanks and ultimately caused the death of 7 patients.

"After examining the evidence, the Public Prosecution found that there was no need to continue the investigation. Therefore, it decided to close the investigation and refer the case file to the Salt Court of First Instance, which has the authority and jurisdiction to try the defendants", Abdallat concluded.