May

19

China mourns earthquake victims

Filed Under Natural Disasters | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan |

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china19.jpgFlags flew at half-staff, public entertainment was canceled and 1.3 billion people were asked to observe three minutes of silence as China began three days of mourning Monday for the victims of the nation’s massive earthquake.

The mourning comes as hopes of finding more survivors in the rubble fade.The number of confirmed deaths now stands at 32,477, but officials say the final toll may reach 50,000. More than 220,000 people have been injured.
The focus of the relief effort is now shifting towards providing food, medical care and shelter for the millions of people affected by Monday’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake.Strong aftershocks are continuing to shake the region, hampering the rescue effort.

The World Health Organization warned that shortages of clean water and warmer, humid weather in Sichuan province — which bore the brunt of the earthquake — were ripe for epidemics. It urged officials not to be distracted by the false belief that corpses were a health threat.

The Health Ministry said no major epidemics or other public health hazards had been reported so far, Xinhua said. Two field hospitals with 400 beds have been set up in isolated areas and medical staff have reached all townships affected by the quake, Xinhua said.

The three-day mourning period starting Monday was the most extensive one the government has ordered since the death 11 years ago of communist patriarch Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the free-market reforms that have brought many Chinese from poverty to moderate prosperity in a generation.

Chinese people, organizations and companies donated around $1.1 billion for quake relief in the first week after the disaster, Xinhua said.



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