section_path: Casualties/Injuries
section_name: Injuries
paragraph_text: Injuries
  
  193 people were injured, including 20 minors. At least 72 people were hospitalised within North Macedonia, while 101 others were confirmed to have been taken abroad for treatment. Some of those were hospitalized in hospitals of Kočani and Štip. Beside those, some were transported to the hospitals of Skopje. This includes 17 with severe burns who were taken to the St. Naum of Ohrid hospital, 49 to the Clinical Centre of Skopje, and 18 to the September 8 General Hospital, two of whom were in critical condition. The Kočani regional hospital was severely unequipped for the influx of victims, having only two ambulances and one van with a bed. Radio Kočani reported that the injured were left lying in the street, since there were not enough emergency vehicles to transport them all. Some of the victims were transported to the hospital by civilian bystanders. A brother of one of the victims said that there were corpses in the hospital corridors, and that he had to step over them to check on his injured sister.
  
  Due to the severity of the injuries as a result of burns and smoke inhalation, some of the injured were transferred to specialized units at hospitals and clinics in Skopje and Štip. By 17 March, all of the remaining patients at the Kočani general hospital had been transferred to clinics in Skopje. Since the drywall installed on the ceiling of the nightclub contained asbestos, a carcinogen, Minister of Health Taravari instructed the injured and anyone else who was at the scene of the fire to see a doctor because they may have inhaled the asbestos. Doctor Bojan Trajkovski said that anyone that was inside the nightclub should be monitored for signs of mesothelioma for the rest of their lives.
  
  On 16 and 17 March, some of the more severely injured persons were transferred to hospitals in other countries; nine patients were transported to Turkey (three to Istanbul and six to Ankara), 14 patients were transported to Bulgaria (eight to Sofia and three each to Varna and Plovdiv). Five people were transferred to Thessaloniki, Greece. Twenty-nine of the injured were sent to four different hospitals in Serbia (Military Medical Academy and Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade, Niš Military Hospital and the Clinical Centre of Niš). Four patients were sent to Lithuania and two each to Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria. One of the patients in Lithuania died on 4 April, while a second patient died on 7 April. On 18 March, two patients were transported to Zagreb, Croatia, for further treatment. Four injured patients were transported to hospitals in Italy on a special Italian Air Force flight that landed in Milan.
  
  On the evening of 17 March, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić visited the injured at the Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade together with health minister Zlatibor Lončar and eleven photojournalists. The citizens of North Macedonia and Serbia on social media accused Vučić of using the occasion for PR and scoring political points. Vučić was photographed touching a patient with his bare hands, and later took off his medical mask while speaking to the press in front of a patient. Similarly, Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, accompanied by several other officials, visited the injured in Skopje hospitals on the evening of 17 March and again on 18 March, before their families were allowed to see them, and without all proper safety measures. One man in Mickoski's company was seen without a mask.