Death Toll Rises After Fire Breaks Out at Covid-19 Hospital in Egypt

Death Toll Rises After Fire Breaks Out at Covid-19 Hospital in Egypt.

A blaze has ripped through a private hospital treating coronavirus patients on the outskirts of Cairo. The disaster left at least seven dead and injured several others. The fire broke out at around 9 am local time at Misr Al Amal Hospital in El Obour, some 35km northeast of the Egyptian capital. It is understood that it started in the intensive care ward on the building’s second floor.

Several fire trucks were deployed to the scene and swiftly got the fire under control and extinguished it. Meanwhile, the patients were evacuated and transferred to a public hospital elsewhere in the city.

According to the results of a preliminary investigation, the fire was caused by an electric short-circuit, security sources told local media. A similar incident occurred in Egypt in June. Back then, seven died in a blaze in the coronavirus ward of a hospital in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Egypt has seen a sharp increase in the number of officially confirmed coronavirus cases over the past week. The health ministry recorded 1,189 new cases and 43 deaths on Saturday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 131,315 cases including 7,352 deaths.

Health experts and some government officials say the real numbers are likely to be much higher due to the low rate of public PCR testing and the exclusion of private test results from the ministry’s figures.

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