FILE PHOTO: A makeshift isolation unit for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients in the United Hospital is pictured after a fire broke out and killed several patients, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 27, 2020.
Three COVID-19 patients died in a hospital blaze in the Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, on Wednesday, officials reported.
The patients, who were using ventilators in the hospital’s intensive care unit, died after the fire triggered an evacuation, said Nazmul Haque, director of the hospital.
A fire service official said it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.
Hospitals are struggling to deal with a fresh spike in COVID-19 cases this month in Bangladesh, which has reported 559,168 cases and 8,571 deaths.
Lax regulations and poor enforcement have often been blamed for large fires in the South Asian nation that have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
