Hospital fire kills five in Russia

150 patients have been evacuated and five patients who had been on ventilator support have been reported dead due to a fire on the sixth floor of St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg.

The building had been earmarked to treat COVID-19 patients. It is reported that the ventilators were “pushed to their limits” and preliminary investigations suggested an “overloaded” which set off a fire.

A similar fire had happened in Moscow last week, killing one patient and pushing hundreds to vacate the hospital, as well as two other residential fires.

More than 220,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in Russia, and ranks fourth in a global tally of total infections after the US, Spain and Britain.