18 patients killed in fire at Covid hospital in Gujarat’s Bharuch

At least 18 coronavirus patients were killed as a fire broke out in a hospital in Gujarat’s Bharuch, police said early Saturday.

Hospital workers and firefighters rescued dozens of other patients at Welfare Hospital. The rescued patients were in a stable condition, the Associated Press quoted police officer B.M Parmar as saying.

The fire broke out at around 1:00 a.m. local time (0730 UTC) in a COVID-19 ward on the ground floor. Responders extinguished the fire within an hour, police said.

Patients were being shifted to nearby hospitals, according to the Asia News International agency.

Earlier this month, 13 COVID-19 patients were killed in a fire in an intensive care unit in the Virar area on the outskirts of Mumbai.