When firefighters arrived at the scene on Wednesday, local media showed pictures of a massive fire at a hospital in the city of Tetovo. The fire was brought under control after hours of effort.
There were a total of 26 patients inside the center at the time of the incident. Twelve of those patients are now in hospital and out of critical care, the health ministry said in a statement sent to CNN.
In a statement issued late Wednesday evening, the government called the accident “a great tragedy” and expressed its deepest condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.
The government has scheduled an emergency and extraordinary session on Thursday related to the tragedy.
The country of 2 million reported 701 new coronavirus infections and 24 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The city of Tetovo, which is mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, has one of the country’s highest number of coronavirus cases.
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