Hospital In Russia Ablaze Amid COVID-19 Battle; Short-Circuit Failure Cited As Preliminary Cause

A hospital in Russia caught fire amid the country’s battle against COVID-19. The tragic incident cost the lives of five patients.

The fire reportedly started in an intensive care ward for COVID-19 patients at a hospital in St. Petersburg at around 6:20 a.m., today (May 12). The five COVID-19 patients who died were reportedly connected to the hospital’s ventilator at the time of the incident.

An emergency services spokesperson revealed that an electric equipment malfunction —a short-circuit failure— was identified as the preliminary reason which caused the fire, Daily Mail reported.

Because of the quick response of the emergency services, the fire was eventually localized. Eleven patients in the same floor ward were rescued, while a sum of 150 patients was reportedly evacuated from St. George City Hospital.

The authorities are reportedly investigating the cause of the fire incident.

Another fire incident was reported on Sunday involving a hospice outside Moscow leaving eighteen elderly casualties. Nine of which unfortunately died, while the other nine were hospitalized, Al Arabiya reported.

The Investigative Committee in Russia reportedly stated that the remains of nine elderlies, aged between 66 to 90 years old, sustained thermal burns.

The investigators reportedly suspected that the fire was caused by faulty wiring inside the hospice located in Krasnogorsk. Russian investigators reportedly detained the owner of the hospice, while a criminal investigation was being conducted to ascertain whether safety rules were violated.

Not only did the country momentarily lose a valuable site for COVID-19 patients because of the fire incidents that happened, Russia is also experiencing challenges involving their health care workers. Apparently, medical workers in Moscow and other Russian cities have reported that many of their co-workers were falling sick.

Local officials revealed that 200 medical health workers were being treated in St. Petersburg’s primary coronavirus hospital, ABC News reported. Meanwhile, 2,000 health care providers were infected with the COVID-19 in Moscow, the Mayor of the City reportedly said.

Talking to the said media outlet, doctors in Russia’s capital reportedly described the current situation in the hospitals as disturbing but manageable. What has been worrying them, however, is the increasing numbers of hospital staff that are getting sick.

Currently, Russia has a total number of 232,243 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 2,116 death toll, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering database.