5 COVID-19 patients die in Romania hospital fire

Romania was in shock on Friday after a fire broke out in the country’s main hospital for coronavirus patients, killing five in the second such incident in three months.

Emergency responders in capital Bucharest found three patients dead at the Matei Bals hospital and could not resuscitate a fourth, junior minister Raed Arafat told reporters.

The body of a fifth victim was later found in one of the bathrooms, Interior Minister Lucian Bode said.

Fire broke out on the hospital’s ground floor around 5 am (0300 GMT) and soon reached four wards, while 102 patients had to be evacuated to other hospitals, fire chief Orlando Schiopu said.

Relatives of the patients gathered in front of the hospital demanding answers about their loved ones, as others were calling around the city’s hospitals to try and track them down.

Visiting the scene some hours after the blaze was put out, President Klaus Iohannis called the fire a “tragedy”.

“We are dealing with a structural problem in Romanian hospitals and I asked the health minister to come up with a reform plan,” Iohannis told reporters.