China's top health authority sends multiple experts to help with relief in Gansu

A person injured in an earthquake receives treatment at a hospital in Minhe Hui and Tu autonomous county of Haidong city, northwest China's Qinghai Province, Dec 19, 2023. Nine people have been confirmed dead and 124 others injured in the city of Haidong, Northwest China's Qinghai province, after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted the neighboring Gansu Province late Monday evening, according to local authorities. [Photo/Xinhua]

The National Health Commission, China's top health authority, said on Tuesday morning that it has dispatched its officials in charge of health emergency work and medical experts to Jishishan county in northwest China's Gansu Province after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake affected the area on Monday evening.

The death toll of the disaster has risen to 105 in Gansu province and 11 in the neighboring Qinghai Province, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday morning.

The commission said that it has sent national-level experts in the fields of intensive care, orthopedics, neurosurgery and general surgery from Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing and West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, along with its officials responsible for medical emergency to Gansu province.

In addition, three national-level medical emergency aid teams in the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and the Ningxia Hui autonomous region have been gathered to rush to Gansu and Qinghai to provide medical aid.

After the quake, the provincial health authorities of Gansu immediately sent 33 ambulances and other rescue vehicles as well as 173 medics to give treatment and transfer patients.

The Qinghai province has mobilized 68 ambulances and over 40 medical experts to give medical aid on-site.

As of 6:30 am on Tuesday, more than 300 injured people had been treated, said the commission.

The commission added that its expert panels are working with local health workers to treat injured people and devise personalized treatment plans.

More medics will be sent based on demands, it added.