KABUL (Pajhwok): The death toll from last week’s twin earthquakes in Venezuela has climbed to more than 3,500, while nearly 18,000 people remain homeless and health officials warn of a growing risk of disease outbreaks among survivors.
The death toll from Venezuela’s twin earthquakes has reached 3,535, with 16,740 people injured and 17,854 left without housing, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez said on Monday, according to Al Jazeera.
At least 12,800 people are staying in 80 shelters across Caracas and La Guaira, the regions hardest hit by the earthquakes.
In La Guaira on Monday, witnesses told Reuters they saw trucks carrying coffins and forensic teams transporting bodies as heavy machinery dug burial trenches in an open area marked with white crosses.
The earthquakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck within seconds of each other on June 24 in and around Caracas and La Guaira, damaging or destroying an estimated 60,000 buildings.
Aid agencies and health experts have warned of a worsening public health emergency as thousands of displaced people remain in overcrowded shelters or sleep outdoors without access to clean water and adequate sanitation. Many survivors have untreated injuries, while Venezuela’s already strained healthcare system is struggling to cope.
“The issue we foresee just around the corner is the infections that patients who have been exposed to the disaster for the longest time might bring,” Eugenio Cova, head of the trauma unit at Hospital Jose Gregorio Hernandez in Caracas, said last week.
“We’ve already gone through a period of complex trauma, which will continue to occur, but now it’s complicated by infections,” he added.
Carolina Jimenez, president of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), told Al Jazeera the disaster has fuelled growing public anger towards the government.
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