PUTIN’S spokesman hospitalized with covid-19.

MOSCOW — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says he is hospitalized with the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Russian health officials on Tuesday announced an investigation into the safety of ventilators at two hospitals, where fires in intensive-care units for coronavirus patients killed six people over the past four days.

Peskov, a key aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday, “Yes, I’ve gotten sick. I’m being treated.”

Peskov, 52, has been Putin’s spokesman since 2008, but started working with him in the early 2000s.

Russians who have the virus but with light or no symptoms of illness are allowed to stay home, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Peskov’s hospitalization reflects the gravity of his condition or was an extra precaution.

Reporters from the Kremlin pool said on Twitter that Peskov was last seen in public on April 30 “at a meeting with Vladimir Putin.” It was not clear whether it means the two were in the same room, as Putin has been conducting his meetings by teleconference in recent weeks.

Peskov’s announcement was made just a day after Putin said Russia was successful in slowing down infections and announced easing some of the nationwide lockdown restrictions.

Russia has reported more than 232,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,100 virus-related deaths, as of Tuesday. Hours before Putin made televised remarks Monday about ending the country’s partial economic lockdown, health officials reported a daily record of over 11,600 new cases.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin revealed on April 30 that he had tested positive for the virus and planned to self-isolate. Putin asked the prime minister to call him after checking into a hospital.

Mishustin’s spokesperson said Monday that the prime minister “continues to undergo treatment in one of the state-run medical facilities” and his health was improving, but gave no details about the severity of his condition.

A fire Tuesday morning at St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg killed five coronavirus patients who were on ventilators. On Saturday, another fire broke out in Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow and killed one patient. Both hospitals have been recently repurposed to treat coronavirus patients and in both, faulty ventilators were reported to have caused the fires.

Dr. Valery Strizheletsky, head of St. George Hospital, said a ventilator in an intensive-care unit caught fire right in front of another doctor. According to media reports, the brand-new Russian-made breathing machine was installed in the unit just 10 days ago.

This particular model had never been used in the hospital before, some reports said. The Associated Press hasn’t been able to independently verify it. Strizheletsky and his deputy, Dr. Igor Ivanov, were unavailable for comments Tuesday.

The ventilator that caught fire in Spasokukotsky Hospital was made at the same factory, the state news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in law enforcement agencies.

The factory in the Sverdlovsk region in the Russian Urals is owned by the state-controlled Rostech corporation, run by longtime Putin ally Sergei Chemezov.

Russia’s state health care watchdog, Rossdravnadzor, said in a statement Tuesday that it was looking into “the quality and the safety” of ventilators that are being used in both hospitals.