According to the Romanian News Agency, at about 5 a.m. local time on January 29, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Bucharest, Romania, suddenly caught fire, killing five patients aged 50 to 7 of COVID-19.
Between the age of 0, 3 men and 2 women, another 53 patients were transferred to other hospitals.
The institute is one of the main designated hospitals in Romania for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The building where the accident occurred was built in 1953 and renovated.
That night, prosecutor Alexandru Anghel, who participated in the investigation of the incident, revealed to the media that there were two oxygen tube explosions at the time of the fire, and the cause of the accident was still under further investigation.
After the accident, Romanian President Johannes expressed his condolences to the families who died and asked the Minister of Health to come up with a health system reform plan as soon as possible.
This is the second recent fire in the ward of patients with COVID-19 in Romania.
On the evening of November 14, 2020, a fire broke out in the intensive care unit of the emergency hospital in PiatraNeamt, a northeastern city, killing 10 people and injuring seven.
