A second team was providing medical support, including setting up a field hospital for survivors.
“We have seen over 100 patients in the three days post-earthquake, with a range of ailments,” Mabbett said.
“We are lucky to have had the kind support from tourists who are paramedics, doctors and nurses from Australia and New Zealand who have assisted us with clinical staffing until their repatriation flights took off.”
Rescuers were tired but in “good spirits”, he said.
The quake also wrecked a building housing the US, French, British, Australian and New Zealand diplomatic missions. The ground floor along half of that four-storey structure was flattened, but no deaths were reported.
The government has declared a seven-day state of emergency and a night-time curfew.
“One concern now is that there are reports of 900 people displaced out of their houses and who have been sleeping outside for the last few days and nights, without proper access to water and sanitation facilities,” said Philippe Guyant, a World Health Organisation medical officer in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu has usually been able to set up refuge for disasters such as cyclones, he told AFP.
“But this time there was no evacuation centre, and people have stayed out for so long. There is a mix of people, some fearing to go back to … their houses destroyed in the earthquake.”
© 2024 AFP
