The administration of a private hospital in Alexandria which saw a fire in an intensive care unit that killed seven coronavirus patients issued a statement on its official Facebook page explaining that the fire was a result of a short circuit in an air-conditioning unit.
The fire broke out on Monday in the Badrawy hospital, located on Mohamed Naguib Street in the Montazah district east of Alexandria.
The victims were six men and one woman, who died from suffocation. Their bodies were sent for further forensic examination.
A public prosecution team was formed to conduct an expanded investigation into the incident after inspecting the scene. Hospital officials were summoned for interrogation while the prosecutors ordered that the hospital’s industrial security licenses be checked.
Khaled Abdel Ghany, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in Alexandria, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the directorate evacuated the hospital after the fire and transferred seven other injured coronavirus patients to the Mamoura Chest Hospital.
An official source at the Mamoura Chest Hospital said that the hospital received the seven other patients Monday morning, who were suffering from suffocation resulting from a combination of pneumonia due to the coronavirus and the fire’s smoke.
The source added that first aid was performed for the patients, with six of them hospitalized in stable condition and a remaining case placed into intensive care due to their critical condition.
He added that this critical case is to be transferred to a private hospital upon the request of their family.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
