Indonesian medics overwhelmed by quake casualties

As Covid-19 tears through southern California, small hospitals in rural towns like Apple Valley are overwhelmed, with coronavirus patients crammed into hallways, makeshift ICU beds and even the pediatric ward. "It's most definitely the darkest period of my entire career," palliative care supervisor Kari McGuire says while fighting back tears.

A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island early Friday 15 January 2021, killing at least 34 people, levelling a hospital and severely damaging other buildings. President Joko Widodo expresses condolences and asks people to stay alert over extreme weather.

Rescuers race to find anyone still alive under the rubble of a flattened hospital as death toll from a powerful earthquake on Indonesia's Sulawesi island has jumped to at least 73, authorities say.

Medics at the Mamuju Regional Hospital battle exhaustion and the risk of Covid-19 as they race to treat scores of people injured by a devastating earthquake on Indonesia's Sulawesi island. Most of the patients are treated under tents after the hospital's main building was damaged.

In Russia's rural areas, records for the number of new coronavirus infections and deaths are broken almost daily. The Kremlin maintains it has the situation under control.

Two months ago, India declared it had defeated Covid-19, but now it has become the epicentre of the pandemic. Many accuse the government of indifference and incompetence, especially after encouraging election rallies and a massive month-long Hindu festival to take place despite the risks. Since then, the country is repeatedly shattering global daily records of new coronavirus infections. Hospitals face fatal shortages of staff, beds, blood and oxygen. FRANCE 24’s Emerald Maxwell reports.

The coronavirus might top the risks at the Tokyo Olympics, but organisers in Japan have other deadly, unpredictable threats to contend with: natural disasters. Japan is regularly rattled by earthquakes and battered by typhoons, and experts warn that disaster preparation for a major event like the Games should not take a back seat because of the virus. Individuals, including tourists, can refresh their hazard awareness at disaster simulation centres, where visitors experience artificial jolts and evacuation through smoke-filled rooms.

Senegal's ongoing record COVID-19 surge has left the capital without spare beds for the severest cases as hundreds now flock to health centres in the hope of getting vaccinated. Like many African countries facing a third wave of infections, Senegal is more vulnerable due to a low vaccination rate compared to richer nations. It has administered fewer than 1 million doses so far to a population of around 16 million people, according to government data.

At least 304 people have been killed in a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti, toppling buildings in the disaster-plagued Caribbean nation still recovering from a devastating 2010 quake.

The death toll from a devastating earthquake in Haiti rose to 1,297 on Sunday as neighboring countries rushed to send aid and rescuers scrambled to find survivors buried beneath the rubble before a tropical storm hits.

Doctors and nurses from home and abroad are struggling against a range of logistical difficulties to get people patched up before a storm hits Haiti. Rebels hold key roads and infection is spreading.

Mexican and Colombian aid arrives in Haiti, after the Caribbean nation was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that left more than 1,400 dead.