Yahoo News Ukraine explosion: One killed after oxygen blast in hospital ward treating Covid patients
The aftermath of the fire that raged through a hospital ward
(AFP via Getty Images)One person has been killed and another wounded after an oxygen explosion in a ward treating patients for coronavirus in a hospital in western Ukraine.
The blast occurred on the second floor of the Chernivtsi hospital at around lunchtime on Saturday, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Twenty people were evacuated after the “oxygen pipe flash” sparked a fire, according to the statement released.
It is the second such incident in a matter of weeks. Earlier in February, three intensive care patients and a young ward doctor died in a fire due to oxygen flaring. The hospital is treating coronavirus cases in Zaporizhzhya, southeastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has registered more than 1.3 million Covid-19 cases with a death toll of 25,893 during the pandemic.
Chernivtsi is among the regions currently experiencing the most new cases of coronavirus.
Following a lull at the beginning of this year when the country was in tight lockdown, cases have surged with the government setting up many mobile hospitals in western Ukraine to tackle the spike.
On Wednesday, the country began its vaccination rollout, with 159 medical workers immunised with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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