Police were deployed to hold back angry relatives, state media said.

The oxygen failure earlier on Saturday hit intensive care, maternity and coronavirus wards in the new Salt Government hospital west of the capital Amman, a government spokesman said.

Prime Minister Al Cason asked the country's health minister to resign over the accident.

The government said initial investigations showed the six deaths were caused by a one hour disruption in oxygen to the wards and that prosecutors were handling the case.

Jordan's King Abdullah also later visited the hospital.

Jordan is facing a spike in covid nineteen infections attributed mainly to the fast transmission of the British variant of the virus it announced last week.