Two patients died after a fire broke out early Thursday morning, November 11, at Movila Hospital in Ploieşti, a city 60 km north of Bucharest, the authorities announced. One nurse, who suffered burns, was transferred for treatment to Bucharest. 

The hospital was treating Covid-19 patients.

Fifteen patients were transferred to the Ploiești County Hospital: one is admitted to the intensive care unit and 14 to a Covid-19 department, the Health Ministry said in a statement quoted by News.ro.

Acting health minister Cseke Attila said he was waiting for specialists to determine the cause of the fire, but the local healthcare system was overstretched because of the fourth wave of the pandemic. 

“What we know today – and we’ve known this for weeks, not since this morning – is that the Romanian healthcare system is overstretched. Unfortunately, this is not new; unfortunately, it will last because the pandemic wave will last,” he said, quoted by News.ro

Over the past three weeks, Romania has transferred Covid-19 patients to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Italy as local hospitals are struggling to cope with the influx of cases.

The fire in Ploiești is the latest among several local hospitals have faced during the pandemic. Last month, seven people died in a fire at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Constanţa. In November of last year, nine patients died after a fire destroyed the intensive care (ATI) section of the county hospital in Piatra Neamt, in northeastern Romania. In January 2021, five patients died after a fire at the Matei Bals Institute in Bucharest, one of Romania's largest hospitals, also treating Covid-19 patients. 

(Photo: Cateyeperspective/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com