Four Covid-19 patients are killed in Romanian hospital blaze – two months after ten died in another hospital fire in the country
- The fire broke out at 5am in a Bucharest hospital treating Covid-19 patients
- The patients were transferred to other coronavirus hospitals while on oxygen
- Investigators do not know the cause of the blaze which broke out at 5am
- In November, another fire in a Romanian hospital saw 10 people killed
A fire has killed four patients at a Covid-19 hospital in Romania with 102 people evacuated, just three months after a similarly deadly hospital fire killed 10.
The blaze, which has since been extinguished, broke out at around 5am local time on Friday in Bucharest.
Four rooms of the Matei Bals hospital were affected and officials are investigating its cause.
The fire, which has since been extinguished, broke out at around 5am local time on Friday in Bucharest
An emergency paramedic consoles himself outside the hospital where the fire broke out on the ground floor
The hospital building where the blaze broke out was built in 1953 and had been completely renovated, its manager said.
Matei Bals is one of the largest and most used Covid-19 hospitals in the country.
The evacuated patients had medium to serious infections and most were using oxygen, the hospital’s manager said.
About 44 of them have been sent to other coronavirus hospitals across Bucharest, and the remaining patients were re-located to other buildings at Matei Bals.
The hospital building where the blaze broke out was built in 1953 and had been completely renovated
The evacuated patients had medium to serious infections and most were using oxygen
Matei Bals is one of the largest and most used Covid-19 hospitals in the country which has a struggling health care system
About 44 patients have been sent to other coronavirus hospitals across Bucharest, and the remaining were re-located 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 emergency situations Raed Arafat told reporters.
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.
‘It is obvious there is a problem,’ Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu told private television station Antena 3.
Nearly 7,700 COVID-19 patients were in hospitals across Romania as of Friday, including 989 in intensive care units
None of the evacuated patients have suffered burns, a minister has told reporters
Even before the pandemic, Romania’s health care system had been under pressure, dogged by corruption, inefficiencies and politicised management
The state has built one hospital in the last three decades, spends the least on healthcare in the European Union and tens of thousands of doctors and nurses have emigrated
‘We are talking about the most-funded institute in the country. It is also the hospital which has treated a lot of patients, it was used to capacity.’
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.yo
Even before the pandemic, Romania’s health care system had been under pressure, dogged by corruption, inefficiencies and politicised management.
The country has one of the EU’s least developed healthcare infrastructures.
The state has built one hospital in the last three decades, spends the least on healthcare in the European Union and tens of thousands of doctors and nurses have emigrated.
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