(TAP) - Prime Minister Youssef Chahed is holding a meeting on Saturday evening with Minister of Health Abderraouf Cherif and some other ministers at the Government Palace in Kasbah after the death of 11 newborns at the Maternity and Neonatology Centre in the Rabta Hospital, an official source told TAP.

The meeting is attended by Social Affairs Minister Mohamed Trabelsi, Youth and Sports Minister Sonia Ben Sheikh and Government Secretary-General Riadh Mouakher, the source added.

The death of newborns at the Rabta hospital are "likely caused by a septic shock resulting from blood infections," according to preliminary investigations by a Ministry of Health crisis unit, the Ministry said in a statement Saturday evening.

Samples were taken from newborns and the medical community to determine the source of infections.

Eleven cases of death were recorded on March 7 and 8 at the Maternity and Neonatology Centre in the Rabta Hospital, the Ministry of Health had said in an earlier release