Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
As fire broke out at a St Petersburg hospital five coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit died. The incident is apparently was triggered due to short-circuit in a ventilator, news agencies have said.
The incident has made alarm bells ringing for the authorities across the state as in such cases shifting of patients from a hospital where COVID-19 patients are being treated is not an easy task.
The fire has now been contained and about 150 people have been evacuated from the hospital, the country’s emergency ministry said. It is not clear how many people have been injured or how many of those who were evacuated had tested positive for coronavirus.
All patients who died had been on ventilators. Ventilators were working on the brink of collapse. According to preliminary data, there was an overload and a machine ignited which caused the fire, and a criminal investigation has now been started into the incident.
This news came as the country is starting to ease lockdown restrictions. Construction, farming and factory workers are being given freedom to work and allow staff to resume 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 tally to 221,344, which is more than Italy and UK.
