Five Covid-19 patients are killed in hospital blaze two months after ten died in another hospital
fire in Romania
A fire has killed five patients at a Covid-19 hospital in Romania just three months after a deadly
hospital blaze killed ten coronavirus patients.
The blaze, which has since been extinguished, broke out at around 5 am local time on Friday in Bucharest.
Emergency responders found three dead patients at the Matei Bals hospital, and could not resuscitate
a fourth. The body of a fifth victim was later found in one of the bathrooms.
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Four rooms of the Matei Bals hospital were affected and officials are investigating its cause.
The hospital building where the blaze broke out was built in 1953 and had been completely renovated, its
manager said.
The evacuated patients had medium to serious infections and most were using oxygen, the hospital’s
manager said
About 44 of them were sent to other coronavirus hospitals across Bucharest, and the remaining patients
were relocated to other buildings at Matei Bals.
‘None of the (evacuated) patients have burns, from the information we currently have,’
Deputy Interior Minister in charge of emergencies Raed Arafat told reporters.
‘It is obvious there is a problem,’ Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu told private television station Antena 3.
The report said nearly 7,700 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals across Romania as of Friday,
including 989 in intensive care units. The country has reported 721,513 coronavirus cases and 18,105
deaths. Back in November, a fire at the intensive care unit of the Piatra Neamt county hospital killed
ten people, one in a series of hospital accidents.
