A Russian-made ventilator that short-circuited is blamed in the deaths of five coronavirus patients within an intensive care unit at Saint George’s Hospital in St. Petersburg yesterday.  A fire ignited by the same model of ventilator killed one person in a hospital in Moscow on Saturday, a law enforcement source told TASS.

“The ventilators are working to their limits. Preliminary indications are that it was overloaded and caught fire, and that was the cause,” a source at the city’s emergency department told the Interfax news agency, according to the BBC.

5 CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS DIE IN RUSSIAN HOSPITAL FIRE, 150 EVACUATED: REPORT

The country’s healthcare watchdog said it would check the quality and safety of the ventilators at the two hospitals, including the one in question — the Aventa-M — which Russia sent to the U.S. in April to help with the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported.

It is reported that the ventilators were delivered in new York and new Jersey, but has not been deployed in hospitals, said Janet Montesi, press Secretary of the Federal U.S. Agency for emergency situations.

“The flattening curve meant these ventilators were not needed,” she added, according to the news organization.

PUTIN’S SPOKESMAN DMITRY PESKOV HOSPITALIZED WITH CORONAVIRUS: REPORTS

An engineering plant east of Moscow confirmed the Aventa-M was one of its products supplied to Saint George’s Hospital, although they had no official data about which devices were installed.

The fan was made by the firm that is under U.S. sanctions, Reuters reports.

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Russia has seen more than 232,243 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 2,116 deaths from the virus, as of Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The country now has the second most confirmed cases behind the U.S.