Bulgarian officials say an overnight fire at a ward for COVID-19 patients has killed three patients.
The fire at the General Hospital in the southern town of Sliven broke out before 3 a.m. on November 14 in a room where three patients were receiving care.
Two of them died on the spot, while the third one later died of severe burns.
The fire was extinguished by firefighters, and an investigation was launched to establish the cause of the tragedy.
A new surge in coronavirus cases is overwhelming Bulgaria’s ailing health-care system, with the authorities on November 14 reporting 8,178 patients in COVID-19 wards, 745 of them in intensive care.
With less than one-third of its adults fully vaccinated, the country of 7 million is the least-vaccinated in the 27-nation European Union.
The fire in Sliven came as Bulgarians are electing a new parliament and president.