Damage assessment goes on in Xizang quake-hit areas

Damage assessment in Baqen County of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, which was struck by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake last Thursday, is advancing in a structured and orderly manner.

By 15:00 Sunday, rescue personnel from the Xizang Military Command had completed search-and-rescue operations and safety checks in seven villages covering a total of 475 households in Maru Town, one of the worst-hit areas.

Local housing and urban-rural development authorities also urgently mobilized specialized technical teams to carry out comprehensive post-quake safety evaluations of damaged buildings.

The assessment has been divided among three teams, which are tasked with conducting building-by-building classification. The categorization of damage levels will provide a crucial basis for subsequent repair and reconstruction, according to Zeng Yong, a senior engineer at the housing and urban-rural development bureau of Nagqu City.

Buildings are tagged with three color-coded identifiers, green for safe to use, yellow for temporary suspension, and red for prohibited use, according to Zeng.

In Gangqie Town, another area hit hard by the quake, residents are dispersed across 16 administrative villages. The rugged terrain, marked by towering mountains, deep valleys, and hard accessibility, poses formidable challenges to assessment teams.

"We wanted to provide the inspection data to the relevant authorities immediately so they could evaluate the situation, so we have worked overtime to get the work done," said Li Jiawei, evaluator of a testing and assessment firm.

The relocation of all affected residents has been completed, and renovation and reconstruction work will also be carried out as planned, according to local officials.

"All residents from the affected areas have now been relocated to tents, so everyone has a safe place to stay. Prefabricated housing units are also in place in succession at the shelters. Moving forward, we will carry out repair and reconstruction based on the emergency assessments, so as to let people move into safe and secure homes as soon as possible," said Jiang Jiu, director of housing and urban-rural development bureau of Baqing County.

Damage assessment goes on in Xizang quake-hit areas

Kenya must maintain high vigilance and continue strengthening disease surveillance and control measures, as the country reaches a critical phase in its response to the current Ebola outbreak, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Friday.

Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, acting WHO representative to Kenya, commended on the Kenyan government's prompt response following the detection of the first imported case, which involved rapid contact tracing and isolation.

According to Kenya's Ministry of Health, the country has reported nine confirmed cases of the Bundibugyo ebolavirus strain, including two deaths. All subsequent confirmed cases were identified while under isolation and are currently receiving treatment, with no evidence of community transmission.

Just before the first batch of close contacts completed their 21-day medical observation without symptoms and began leaving quarantine starting Sunday, Kimambo noted that releasing contacts from observation does not signal the end of the outbreak.

"So for WHO criteria, we look at those 21 days. But we still have people who are sick, right? So until you come to the last patient being treated and is now Ebola-free, then we count up to 42 days to officially say this is over. So we still have a while to go for that," she said.

The official also highlighted the broader regional concern, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where new cases continue to rise rapidly and cross-border human mobility increases the difficulty of epidemic control.

"They're currently now getting around an average of 70 something new cases every day. You can imagine if the case in Kenya, just one case, we had over 100 contacts. So imagine 70 new cases every day. How many contacts?" she said.

To address these challenges, the WHO is assisting relevant countries in sharing information and coordinating responses through national contact mechanisms and country offices, Kimambo added.

Kenya to remain vigilant in Ebola response: WHO official