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Turkey’s Health Minister revealed that the death toll had risen due to a fire outbreak on Saturday at a hospital in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey.
The number of victims rose to 10, all of whom were receiving treatment for the Covid-19 epidemic, according to AFP.
And a previous figure indicated that there were nine dead.
The fire broke out in the intensive care unit for people with Covid-19, in the hospital, after the explosion of an oxygen tube from a ventilator.
The other injured, affected by the fire, were transferred to various hospitals in the area.
Later, the governor’s office declared that 19 patients were in the unit when a “high-pressure oxygen device” exploded, and said that except for the dead, no one else was injured in the fire.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” Turkish Health Minister Fakhruddin Kujah said before a scheduled visit to the region.
Turkey has recorded more than 1.9 million cases of the emerging coronavirus and more than 17,600 deaths.
According to government figures, intensive care units in Turkey have a bed occupancy rate of 74 percent due to the coronavirus outbreak, although medical associations have claimed that hospitals have over-capacity with Covid-19 patients.
Turkey tightened restrictions in place at the end of November, with a full curfew imposed during the weekend and partial during the week to counter the sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
