Nine people hospitalized have died after the rupture of an oxygen hose in a hospital in Vladikavkaz, capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia, said the Ministry of Health, quoted by Russian news agencies.
A criminal investigation has been opened for providing services that do not meet security requirements and resulting in death by negligence, announced the Russian Investigation Committee, which deals with the main criminal cases, quoted by the TASS news agency.
The health ministry said 71 patients were in intensive care at the time of the accident, 13 of whom were on "life support".
The nine patients who perished were all on ventilators.
According to the acting head of the republic, Sergei Minyaylo, the lungs of the nine patients were already "90% damaged" before the tube ruptured and it is too early, he says, to blame their deaths on this accident.
The problem solved "in 30 to 40 minutes"
He added that the problem had been "quickly detected and eliminated within 30 to 40 minutes" and that the other patients had been connected to "oxygen cylinders and emergency oxygen sources".
Several accidents in anti-Covid hospitals have resulted in patient deaths since the start of the pandemic.
In June, three people were killed in a fire at the Ryazan hospital, southeast of Moscow.
A faulty artificial respirator is suspected to be the cause.
Seven people were also killed in the flames in May 2020 in hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg (north-west).
Again, faulty respirators have been singled out.
Russia is the fourth most affected country in the world by the pandemic, with nearly 6.5 million officially recorded cases, according to an AFP count.
According to the statistics agency Rosstat, at least 290,000 Russians had died at the end of May from Covid-19.
