Five Covid-19 patients die in Russia hospital fire

A fire at a St Petersburg hospital has killed five coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit.

The blaze was apparently started by a short-circuit in a ventilator, Russian news agencies reported.

The fire has now been contained and 150 people have been evacuated from the hospital, the country’s emergency ministry said. It is not clear how many people have been injured.

All of the patients who died had been on ventilators.

“The ventilators are working to their limits. Preliminary indications are that it was overloaded and caught fire, and that was the cause,” a source at St Petersburg emergencies department told the Interfax news agency.

The news comes as the country is starting to ease lockdown restrictions. Construction, farming and factory workers are resuming their duties.

Russia now has the third-highest number of confirmed infections worldwide. On Monday, it reported a record daily rise of 11,656 cases, bringing the official total to 221,344.

That means Russia now has more confirmed cases than both Italy and the UK.

BBC

About Elvis Anokye

Check Also

Vice-President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday afternoon, ending two weeks of intense speculation that has gripped the US as it hurtles towards the November presidential election.

Why Kamala Harris lost: A flawed candidate or doomed campaign?

Nearly a month ago, Kamala Harris appeared on ABC’s The View in what was expected …

Vance and Walz stick to policy in polite VP debate – but who won?

Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz felt like a …