Fan fire kills five coronavirus patients in Russia

Five coronavirus patients died on Tuesday after a fire in an intensive care unit caught fire, Russian news agencies reported.

The fire was quickly put out, but 150 were evacuated from Saint George Hospital in Saint Petersburg, which was recently reused to treat patients with Covid-19. The first indications showed that the device was overloaded, causing a short circuit.

"The fans were pushed to the limit. Our preliminary information suggests that there was an overload and that the equipment caught fire, which caused the fire," a source told the source. 39; Interfax press agency.

The hospital said it would stop using the Aventa-M lung ventilator model until the criminal investigation into the cause of the fire was completed , according to the TASS news agency.

The St. Petersburg fire was the second incident in a few days in Russia, as an intensive care fire in a Moscow hospital killed a Covid-19 patient on Saturday and 200 people were evacuated.

Russia has registered the second highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world, with more than 232,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,100 deaths, until its publication.