Venezuela hospitals near breaking point after earthquakes, WHO warns

Summary

Venezuela's fragile healthcare system is nearing breaking point nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, aid groups warned on Tuesday, as damaged and understaffed hospitals struggle to treat the injured and the risk of infectious diseases rises in the disaster zone. The government has put the death toll at more than 1,900, but experts say the real number is likely to be higher as more bodies are pulled from the rubble and morgues struggle to cope. Official rescues have also slowed sharply. Authorities said 5,380 people were saved in the first two days after the quakes, but only four were found alive on Monday. By Tuesday afternoon, the only survivor rescued was a toddler who had been trapped for six days under a collapsed building, National Assembly president Jorge Rodrguez said. Those figures do not include many rescues carried out by volunteer groups that moved in before expert international teams arrived, frustrated by what they saw as a slow government response. United Nations agencies said thousands of displaced people have spent days sleeping in the open or in crowded, unhygienic shelters. World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said Venezuela's healthcare system, already weakened by decades of underinvestment and years of economic crisis, was 'under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases'. Venezuelan officials say more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes, a figure that UN refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said reflects the official number of displaced people. She said the number would continue to rise, with many newly homeless people sleeping in cars, parks and other places, while those in the worst-hit state of La Guaira also face widespread food shortages.