Fire Sweeps an Indian COVID Ward for Second Time in a Week, at Least 12 Patients Dead
At least 12 COVID-19 patients have died in a fire that broke out in an Indian hospital early Saturday morning, local time. A similar blaze ripped through another Indian hospital over the last week.
The most recent fire occurred at 1 a.m. on Saturday on the ground floor of Welfare Hospital, according to NDTV. The hospital is a four-story COVID-19 facility located in Bharuch, a city located in the western state of Gujarat.
At least 12 patients died due to the flames and resulting smoke. An additional 50 patients were rescued by locals and firefighters. The surviving patients were relocated to other nearby hospitals for continued care.
A similar fire killed at least 15 COVID-19 patients on Friday, April 23. The fire occurred in the private-owned Vijay Vallabh COVID Care hospital in Virar, a city located in the eastern state of Maharashtra.
Fire officials said the blaze started around 3:15 a.m. local time due to a short circuit in an air conditioning unit. The short circuit caused an explosion that destroyed the hospital's entire intensive care unit, according to the Hindustan Times.
Though the fire only lasted 15 minutes before being extinguished, it killed 13 patients. Two other patients from the hospital died after being transported for care elsewhere.
Another fire killed four patients in the Prime Criticare Hospital at Kausa, a neighborhood located in Mumbra, a city in Maharashtra. Investigators are unsure what caused the blaze. None of the affected patients had COVID-19, according to India Today.
A non-fire-related tragedy killed 22 COVID-19 patients at the Zakir Hussain hospital located in Nashik, another city in Maharashtra. A faulty valve in an oxygen tank caused the tank to leak, depriving oxygen to patients on ventilators for about 30 minutes, according to the BBC.
Oxygen has been in short supply as the country deals with a dramatic uptick in COVID-19 cases. As of Friday morning, India had a seven-day average of over 357,000 new daily infections and over 3,000 daily deaths
"What we are seeing is nothing short of an apocalypse," Dr. Farah Husain, head of a COVID-19 ICU unit at Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, told CNN on Friday morning. "The second wave is extremely contagious, extremely aggressive and it is affecting the younger population in a significantly different way that we had not expected."
Husain said that the country's medical workers were overwhelmed and "extremely fatigued."
The Biden administration has sent two military planes to India to help the country fight COVID-19. The planes contain over 400 oxygen cylinders, oxygen level indicators, about 184,000 rapid COVID tests and nearly 85,000 N95 masks.
France, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Russia have also pledged to assist India by sending over medical supplies.
Newsweek contacted the World Health Organization for comment.
