There was a fire incident on Tuesday morning at St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg bluebloodz.com has learned.
The incident killed five coronavirus patients who were on ventilators, Russian emergency officials revealed.
The unnamed emergency officials who spoke said-.
The fire broke out in an intensive care unit and was put out within half an hour. It could have been caused by a faulty ventilator, the Interfax news agency reported, citing anonymous sources.
Police in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, have launched a criminal investigation into the fire.
It was not the first deadly fire in a coronavirus hospital in Russia. On Saturday, a fire in the Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow killed one patient.
Russia has reported more than 220,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,009 deaths numbers that international health officials say significantly undercount the true toll of Russia’s outbreak.
Treating coronavirus patients has put a strain on the country’s vastly outdated health care infrastructure.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov(pictured in the middle) on Tuesday said he tested positive for the coronavirus and was receiving treatment in hospital, news agencies reported.
“I am ill. I’m being treated,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies TASS and Interfax, which specified he had COVID-19.
Peskov is the fourth senior government official to have fallen ill, after Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and Construction Minister Vladimir Yakushev said they tested positive for the coronavirus.