Deaths of 4 raise questions at hospital

CAIRO — The deaths of at least four coronavirus patients early Sunday at a public Egyptian hospital have stirred controversy after a video of nurses struggling to keep the patients alive was shared widely on social media.

The governor of Sharqia province denied allegations by a relative of one of the patients that the deaths were caused by a lack of oxygen at the government-run intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients. Gov. Mamdouh Ghorab said the patients died because they suffered chronic diseases in addition to the virus.

The four dead were twowomen in their 60s and two men, 76 and 44 years old, according to a local news outlet. Prosecutors in Sharqia said the deaths were being investigated.

The deaths follow similar allegations by a relative last week that two patients died because of a lack of oxygen at a government-run hospital elsewhere in the Nile Delta. Prosecutors in Menoufia province have launched an investigation into the cause of the deaths Friday.