At least 13 Covid-19 patients died in a fire which broke out at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Palghar district of western Indian state of Maharashtra today, police said.
The blaze broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar, over 50km from Mumbai, shortly after 3am local time, an official said.
There were 17 patients in the ICU when the fire broke out, the official said. Four patients were rescued, he added.
District Disaster Control Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam said the fire was preceded by an explosion in the air conditioner unit of the ICU.
The incident comes just a few days after 22 Covid patients, who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen supply stopped suddenly due to a leak in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik which also in Maharashtra.
Ten infants were killed in a fire that broke out at a special new-born care unit of the Bhandara district hospital in Maharashtra on January 9.
A fire had broken out in Mumbai's Dreams Mall, which housed a makeshift Covid hospital on its third floor, on the intervening night of March 25-26, claiming nine lives, including those of patients on ventilator support.
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