On the 24th (local time), the official death toll from a series of powerful earthquakes in Venezuela surpassed 1,900. However, because the tally counts only victims whose bodies have been recovered, the number of deaths is expected to rise.
On the 30th, according to Reuters and the New York Times (NYT), Jorge Rodríguez, speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said in a speech that the official death toll from the chain of earthquakes has reached 1,943. That is 224 more than the previous day's announcement. The number of injured was tallied at 10,571, more than double the 5,034 reported the previous day.
Jennifer Moreno Canizales, Spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Caracas, said the current death count is based only on victims whose bodies have been recovered, and the number of victims is expected to continue to rise as search operations proceed.
The NYT also reported, "Far more Venezuelans remain missing, and the chances of finding survivors diminish with time," adding that the actual number of victims could be far higher than the official tally.
However, the newspaper added that there is still no official tally or reliable statistics for those who went missing after the major quakes.
Gianluca Rampolla del Tindaro, the United Nations resident coordinator in Venezuela who is conducting relief efforts on the ground, said in a video briefing the previous day that, in preparation for a rise in deaths, the UN is securing 10,000 body bags in cooperation with the Venezuelan government.
"This is a contingency for the worst-case scenario, which is very unfortunate," the coordinator said. "We sincerely hope the actual number of victims will be lower."
Meanwhile, a Venezuelan civilian website that tracks people missing from the quake damage had received reports for about 42,000 missing as of the day.
However, the NYT reported that this is not a government-confirmed figure but the site's own tally, and it may include people who are safe but have not been in contact with their families.