Prevent deaths from causes derived froml earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that hit Japan two weeks ago today has become one of the priorities of the Japanese country, which sees how the conditions in the evacuation centers worsen the health of displaced victims.
Seismic activity has not stopped since New Year's Day in Japan, which in 15 days has registered nearly 1,400 perceptible tremors, and the latest official figures amount to 222 deaths, 22 missing and 1,025 minor and serious injuries.
Some 19,000 people remain evacuated in gyms and community centers where conditions are far from ideal and, together with the cold and rainy storm, to which snow is expected to add, cause hypothermia to proliferate, andRespiratory and gastrointestinal diseases and episodes of stress.
In fact, 14 of the 222 deceased died for reasons that would not be directly related to the earthquake, but rather with derived causes such as deterioration in their health.
To avoid contagion, many of those evicted are being transferred to hotels or 'ryokans' (traditional Japanese accommodation) in other locations inside and outside Ishikawa prefecture and as of today vtemporary housing in Noto and Anamizu.
A total of 247 homes are planned to be built in Ishikawa, between the towns of Noto, Anamizu and Wajima.
One of the victims relocated to one of these locations was grateful “for being able to stretch her legs” while sleeping and shower “for the first time in two weeks,” according to national broadcaster NHK.
On the other hand, affected people like Setsuko, 85, are reluctant to leave their homes, as they doubt that their conditions allow them to live in evacuation centers: “I have a physical disability (reduced mobility), so I live at home, which I am used to, but every time there is an earthquake I think it is going to collapse at any moment,” NHK reported.
The authorities fear that there will be more than 14 evacuees who lose their lives due to sudden or chronic illnesses after staying in a temporary shelter and the Ministry of Health announced that it will begin send caregivers from other parts of the country to Ishikawa.
The damage to the infrastructure caused thousands of people to be isolated, but the number drops to 490, after reconstruction work whose pace was slowed by the lifting of the roads.
The tremors persist, but the Japan Meteorological Agency reported that “they are gradually decreasing” in the Noto region, the epicenter of the earthquake, although the authorities ask not to lower their guard against possible landslides.
EFE
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