Ecuador's President Rafael Correa visited the northern province of Esmeraldas Thursday along with some of the other northern coastal areas that were most affected by the devastating earthquake.

The president announced his return to the affected areas via his Twitter account. This time he was visiting Esmeraldas instead of its neighboring province of Manabi, where Correa visited between Sunday and Tuesday. These two provinces were the worst affected by the disaster.

"My thanks to everyone. After the confusion of the first hours,  the country has reacted very well. Now all the affected areas have been attended to in terms of health, water, food and safety. The search for bodies continues and I hope also for survivors," said Correa on the social network.

The government will start to install adequate camps for people that have lost their homes due to the fact that rebuilding "will take a long time, but together we will overcome this tragedy," according to the president.

Ecuador's Prosecutor's Office said in its latest report that the death toll has reached 577. At least 13 foreigners from various countries were among the dead.

Correa said on Wednesday that the death toll "is changing every minute" and he added that "unfortunately it will continue to increase."

According to preliminary data, 54 people have been rescued from the rubble.

As of 13:20 local time (18:20 GMT), 7,015 people have been registered as injured and 155 people are still missing, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

The National Ministry for Risk Management said on Wednesday that there were 21,835 people being housed in shelters, 1,116 buildings destroyed and 146 schools affected.

Highways and bridges between the towns located on the Pacific coast have also been destroyed.

Domestic and international aid has been flooding in to help the thousands of affected people. Ecuador's institutions and people have also been helping to gather foodstuffs and supplies.

On Wednesday, the Under-Secretary-General for the United Nations' Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, visited the affected areas on Ecuador's north coast. He asked the international community for an urgent collection of 73 million U.S. dollars to help the victims.

The rescue workers will continue with hard job of searching for survivors among the rubble.

Apart from Manabi and Esmeraldas, the provinces of Guayas, Los Rios, Santa Elena and Santo Domingo de las Tsachilas were also affected by the 7.8- magnitude earthquake.

Fear and nervousness contined to plague the South American country due to the chain of aftershocks that have been occurring, almost successively, according to the Geophysical Institute.

On Wednesday, there were aftershocks measuring 6.1 and 6.3 degrees on the Richter scale which caused panic and alarm among the population.  

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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