By NEHA MEHROTRA and ASHOK SHARMA
Associated Press Apr 23, 2021
1 hr ago
NEW DELHI (AP) India put oxygen tankers on special express trains as major hospitals in New Delhi on Friday begged on social media for more supplies to save COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe. More than a dozen people died when an oxygen-fed fire ripped through a coronavirus ward in a populous western state.
India’s underfunded health system is tattering as the world’s worst coronavirus surge wears out the nation, which set another global record in daily infections for a second straight day with 332,730.
India has confirmed 16 million cases so far, second only to the United States in a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. India has recorded 2,263 deaths in the past 24 hours for a total of 186,920.
There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit, an official said. The dead include five women and eight men.
TV visuals showed the smoke-filled ICU in a disarray after the blaze, with the ceiling falling off in some places, beds and other furniture strewn around and kin of the deceased wailing outside the hospital.
The fire broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar shortly after 3 am, an official said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 am, he added.
Thirteen COVID-19 patients die in hospital fire in Maharashtra s Palghar district
District Disaster Control Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam told media that the fire was preceded by an explosion in the AC unit of the intensive care unit.
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A Covid-19 pateint being taken out of a hospital after a fire in Vasai, Maharashtra, Friday. April 23, 2021. (Photo | PTI) By PTI
VIRAR: Thirteen COVID-19 patients died in a blaze at the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Friday, police said.
There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit, an official said.
13 Feared Dead In Fire At ICU Ward Of Covid-19 Hospital In Maharashtra
The patients’ identity could not be ascertained as they were charred beyond recognition. Twitter Outlook Web Bureau 2021-04-23T07:25:47+05:30 13 Feared Dead In Fire At ICU Ward Of Covid-19 Hospital In Maharashtra outlookindia.com 2021-04-23T10:05:56+05:30
At least 13 ICU patients have died after a fire broke out last night at a hospital in Maharashtra s Virar, about 70 km from state capital Mumbai. A short circuit is believed to have caused the fire at 3:00 am today. The situation is said to be under control now.
The fire broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar shortly after 3 am, an official said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 am, he added.
Fire kills 13 Covid patients in Indian hospital
Tragedy in Mumbai comes only two days after 22 coronavirus patients died in an oxygen leak at another Maharashtra hospital
Updated: April 23, 2021 10:47 AM GMT
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Policemen stand guard as hospital workers move patients from the Vijay Vallabh Hospital in Virar on the outskirts of Mumbai on April 23 after a fire killed 13 coronavirus patients. (Photo: AFP)
A fire in a hospital in India s Mumbai city has killed 13 Covid-19 patients, adding to the challenges of spiraling pandemic cases in Maharashtra, India s richest and most industrialized state.
The accident on April 23 in Vijay Vallabh Hospital in state capital Mumbai comes two days after 22 Covid-19 patients died after an oxygen leak led to a drop in air pressure to ventilators at a hospital in Nashik in Maharashtra.