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At least 13 people died on Friday in a fire at a hospital for coronavirus patients in the western state of Maharashtra, the Indian region most affected by the pandemic, without the causes of the incident being yet known.

The fire started in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Vijay Vallabh Hospital, in the coastal city of Virar, near the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, and was not controlled until this morning. "There have been 13 deaths. There were 90 patients in our hospital.

A fireball broke out in the ICU and spread within a few minutes,

" the executive director of the hospital, Dilip Shah, told reporters. The director of the center remarked that the incident was "an accident" and that they had installed a fire protection mechanism, without providing more details on the possible causes.

Shortly after the tragedy began, groups of people in the vicinity of the hospital desperately tried to help several members of the medical staff to evacuate the patients, according to local televisions. "

The fire in the hospital (for patients of) Covid-19 in Virar is tragic

. Condolences to those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter after learning about the event.

The president announced compensation of 200,000 rupees (about 2,200 euros) for the families of the deceased, and 50,000 rupees (about 555 euros) for the seriously injured. This incident comes after another fire in Mumbai last month at a hospital for coronavirus patients killed at least 10 people. The fire today in this hospital represents a new blow for India in its fight against the pandemic in the middle of the second wave, and after new records registered this Friday, with 332,730 positives and 2,263 daily deaths.

Maharashtra continues to be the region that concentrates the most cases, with 67,013 new cases and 568 deaths in the last day.

With these new positives, the total number of cases in India exceeds 16.2 million, keeping India as the second nation with the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic, only behind the United States (31.9 millions).

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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