A fire in a Covid-19 hospital ward in western India killed 18 patients early on Saturday. Hospital staff and firefighters rescued 31 patients at the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a city in Gujarat state. The rescued patients were in a stable condition, said police officer BM Parmar. However, 18 patients died in the blaze before rescuers could reach them, he said. The fire broke out in a Covid-19 ward on the ground floor and was extinguished within an hour, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted the fire service as saying. Its cause is being investigated. Saturday's fire follows a similar event on April 23, when a blaze in an intensive care unit killed 13 Covid-19 patients in the Virar area, on the outskirts of Mumbai. The fire comes as India faces a devastating second wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths. On Friday, the country reported another global daily record of 386,452 new cases – pushing the overall toll to more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began, second only to the US. The Health Ministry reported 3,498 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount. Faced with an unprecedented surge in cases that has filled hospitals and crematoriums, creating a major crisis in a country of 1.4 billion, the government on Saturday shifted its faltering vaccination campaign into high gear, saying all adults 18 and over were eligible to receive a vaccine. Since January, nearly 10 per cent of Indians have received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, but only around 1.5 per cent have received both, even though India is one of the world’s biggest producers of vaccines. Despite the government’s promise of everyone over 18 being eligible, states have already said they do not have enough doses for everyone. Many are already struggling with the ongoing effort to inoculate people above 45. _________________
