Kriti Agrawal
According to police, on Friday, 13 COVID- 19 patients died in a fire at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a private hospital in the Palghar district of Maharashtra.
An official said, the fire started in the ICU on the second floor of Vijay Vallabh Hospital in Virar shortly after 3 a.m. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 a.m.
According to the official, there were 17 patients in the ICU when the fire started. Four patients were rescued and transferred to other hospitals in the city.
The tragedy comes just two days after 22 COVID-19 patients suffocated to death when their oxygen supply abruptly stopped due to a failure in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik.
According to the District Disaster Control Cell chief, the Virar hospital fire was followed by an explosion in the AC unit of the ICU.
Relatives of the deceased arrived at the hospital shortly after learning of the incident and requested that those responsible for the tragedy face harsh punishment.
PM Narendra Modi called the deaths in Palghar district’s Virar as “tragic”. PMO tweeted “Sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones. May the injured recover soon.”
PMO also tweeted, “PM Narendra Modi has approved a 2 lakh ex-gratia from the PMNRF (Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund) for the next of kin of those who died in the hospital fire in Virar, Maharashtra. 50,000 will be given to those who had been seriously injured.”