Russia mourns coronavirus
patients killed in hospital fire
 |
| Emergency specialists work at the fire-hit hospital in Saint Petersburg |
Russia is mourning the death of at least five Covid-19
patients who died early Tuesday when a fire broke out in a hospital in St.
Petersburg..
By Stefan J. Bos
Firefighters and authorities were inspecting the scene of a
fire that struck St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest
city.
Emergency officials said that a least a handful of
coronavirus patients who were on ventilators died after the blaze broke out in
an intensive care unit.
The fire was put out within half an hour. Russian media have
quoted sources as saying that a faulty ventilator could have caused the
blaze.
Police in St. Petersburg launched a criminal investigation
into the fire.
But it wasn't the first deadly blaze in a coronavirus
hospital in Russia. On Saturday, a fire in the Spasokukotsky Hospital in
Moscow, the capital, killed one patient.
More suffering
Separately, at least nine people died in a fire at a nursing
home on Moscow's outskirts late Sunday. The authorities in Krasnogorsk on
Moscow's northwestern edge said the fire broke out in a private facility for
the elderly. A short circuit was blamed for that blaze.
Officials said the nursing home lacked fire alarms and other
mandatory equipment. Police detained its owner on charges of breaching fire
safety rules.
These latest incidents underscore broader concerns about the
situation in neglected hospitals and other care homes in Russia as the
country faces an uphill battle to halt the coronavirus outbreak.
Lockdown easing
Despite these difficulties, Russian president Vladimir Putin
began easing a six-week nationwide lockdown.
"Starting from May 12, the national period of
non-working days are over. In all of the country and for all sectors of the
economy," " he told the nation in televised remarks.
But President Putin warned: "The fight against the
epidemic is not over. The danger remains."
Russia has reported more than 232,000 confirmed coronavirus
cases and over 2,000 deaths. Critics say those numbers significantly undercount
the real toll of the outbreak in Russia, a country of some 142-million people.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét