Aid workers warn of infectious diseases, overwhelmed hospitals after Venezuela quakes

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela's fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals overwhelmed by the injured and deteriorating conditions in the disaster zone causing infectious diseases to spread.

The scores of international and domestic teams across Venezuela remain focused on the search for survivors, with the government death toll surpassing 1,700 and new bodies still being hauled out from the rubble.

But a humanitarian crisis is already unfolding among the living. United Nations agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.

Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said on Tuesday. Suddenly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and elsewhere without adequate emergency shelter available.

Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said.

At a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier warned that displaced Venezuelans without access to toilets, showers, soap or much nourishing food have become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable diseases like measles, given the population's low vaccination rates. Conditions are ripe for waterborne infections like dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread.

The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underinvestment and years of economic crisis is “under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases,” Lindmeier said.

According to the government, last week's earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now buckling under the influx of injuries.

Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said, compounding the challenges to health care in a country that 8 million people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent years.

“Findings reveal chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding, growing surgical backlogs ... and a breakdown in biosafety measures,” Lindmeier said. He added that “the collapse of forensic and morgue services and inadequate casualty registration" has made it difficult to gauge the scope of the disaster.

Venezuela's government, which has long retained control over access to information, offers daily casualty updates. Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, announced Monday that the official toll stood at 1,719 people killed and 5,000 injured, and warned the public against sharing information that contradicted authorities.

Experts say the official toll is likely a significant undercount, as many more people remain missing and hopes for finding survivors diminish with each passing day.

NASA estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, on Tuesday said 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.

Authorities have not offered an official count of missing people, leading many Venezuelans to turn to nongovernmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. One such registry listed at least 43,220 people as missing.

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

People affected by the earthquake line up for food in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, June 27, 2026.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Ogleisys Cisneros holds her son, Santiago Medina, while waiting in line for government humanitarian aid, days after an earthquake struck in La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People reach out to receive supplies from volunteers, days after an earthquake struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Rescuers search through the rubble of buildings that collapsed in the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Residents search through the rubble of a building that collapsed in the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Rscuers from Spain mobilized though the area affected in the earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Resident Kerli Faria takes a break amid the rubble while searching for her nephews at a building that collapsed during the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

LeBron James will not be back with the Los Angeles Lakers and plans to play a record-extending 24th NBA season elsewhere.

His decision is perhaps the biggest domino that will fall during the NBA's offseason player movement window, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded by Milwaukee to Miami — one of James' former stops.

The Lakers released a statement Tuesday thanking James for his eight seasons with the club.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” said Jeanie Buss, part of the Lakers’ ownership group. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances, and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”

ESPN, citing James’ longtime agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, first reported James’ plans.

James can begin talking officially to new clubs after 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, when the league’s free agent period opens. He will not be able to sign with a new team until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.

A slew of options will be available to James on the open market, including Golden State. Longtime Warriors forward Draymond Green did not exercise his $27.6 million option for this coming season earlier this week in large part to allow his team flexibility to make other roster moves.

“Personally, I’m always willing to work with the team on whatever is best, especially at this point in my career,” Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, which was released Tuesday. “So my decision to opt out was for a few reasons. As you all know, I’ve always taken the approach of working with the organization. I’ve been in one place for 14 years. It’s more of a family to me than anything.”

It could be the move that convinces James to go to Golden State — a franchise he faced four times with Cleveland in the NBA Finals. He also has close relationships with Green, Stephen Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

James spent eight seasons with the Lakers, the longest he spent in one stint with one NBA team and led them to the 2020 NBA championship. He became the NBA’s all-time points leader while wearing a Lakers uniform and surpassed a slew of other records while in purple and gold.

He spent the first seven years of his career in Cleveland, then left for four years in Miami where he won the first two of his four championships. That was followed by another four-year stint with the Cavaliers, and in 2018 he joined the Lakers.

James is the NBA’s oldest active player; he turns 42 in December. He was the first player in league history to log 23 seasons; he’ll add at least one more to that this season. He also became the first player in the league to have a son as a teammate, with Bronny James playing alongside him with the Lakers.

The list of James’ accolades to this point are beyond comparison.

He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team. He’s coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and for his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

FILE - Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James salutes public address announcer Lawrence Tanter prior to an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill,File)