Thirteen Covid-19 patients died on Friday morning, April 23, in a fire in a hospital in the suburbs of Bombay, a firefighter official reported to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The country has to face an exponential increase in cases, with nearly 4 million new infections since the beginning of April, attributed in particular to a “Double mutation” virus and mass events, such as the Hindu religious festival Kumbh Mela. He also faces a shortage of oxygen, medicine and hospital beds.
The fire, now extinguished, broke out at around 3 a.m. local time (Thursday at 11:30 p.m. Paris time) and its causes are being investigated.
“Seventeen patients were in the intensive care unit of Vijay Vallabh hospital when a fire broke out, thirteen died and four others were transferred to other establishments”said Morrison Khavari, a fire official.
Power failure and multiple fires
Two days earlier, 22 Covid-19 patients died at another hospital in the same state of Maharashtra due to an oxygen supply cut-off to ventilators for half an hour. In March, a fire in a hospital killed eleven people in Mumbai and four patients also died in early April in a fire at a private clinic in Maharashtra.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to participate in at least three crisis meetings on Friday devoted in particular to the supply of oxygen and the availability of essential drugs. The capital New Delhi continues to be among the hardest hit, with hundreds of thousands of new infections and a slew of new hospitalizations in recent days.