At least eighteen persons including 16 COVID-19 patients died in a fire at a hospital at Bharuch in Gujarat in the early hours of Saturday, officials said. The state government said a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the fire that destroyed the Intensive Care Unit of Patel Welfare Hospital, run by a charitable trust. Sixteen coronavirus patients and two nursing staff were either charred to death or died due to suffocation inside a COVID-19 unit, Superintendent of Police Rajendrasinh Chudasama said. As many as 50 patients were undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 facility on the ground floor when fire broke out in the ICU around 1 am, probably because of short circuit, said a hospital official.