A makeshift isolation unit for COVID-19 patients at United Hospital after a fire broke out
Dhaka:
Five coronavirus patients died in a hospital fire in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
It is not immediately known what caused the fire, said Zillur Rahman, director of the fire department. The firefighters extinguished the flames in about an hour, said Rahman.
Five bodies were found in the makeshift isolation unit at United Hospital which treated patients with COVID-19, said Rahman. The dead included four men and a woman between the ages of 45 and 75, he said.
Hospitals are struggling to cope with an outbreak of coronavirus infections in recent weeks in Bangladesh, which has reported 38,292 cases and 544 deaths.
Some health experts are concerned that the actual number of cases may be higher in a country of more than 160 million people where many have limited access to health care.
Lax regulations and poor enforcement have often been blamed for the large fires in the South Asian country that have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
At least 25 people were killed in March of last year when a fire broke out in a 22-story commercial building in the upscale Banha district of Dhaka.
In February of last year, a blaze in a century-old Dhaka neighborhood killed 71 people and injured dozens.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
