More than 80,000 people are dead or missing from China's worst earthquake in decades, the government said today, as concerns rose that disease, the rainy season and aftershocks could bring yet more pain.
Previously, authorities had said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000.
Ten days after the magnitude 7.9 quake rocked the mountainous southwest of the country, relief efforts focused on the 5 million homeless and the millions of others facing disease and possible "secondary disasters."
The government implored the international community to provide more relief aid, saying they needed more than 3 million tents and that just 400,000 had so far reached the disaster zone.
Chinese earthquake survivors make their way through a neighborhood destroyed by last week's earthquake
Hospitals in Sichuan were overwhelmed by the nearly 300,000 hurt, prompting the government to put on extra train services to ferry the injured to other parts of the country, state media reported.
Heavy rain, snow and aftershocks have exacerbated the dangers faced by more than 100,000 troops assisting in the relief effort.
"There have been constant aftershocks and the rainy season starts in June ... the earthquake has loosened the mountains," said Yun Xiaosu, Vice Minister of Land and Resources. "It is very likely to cause frequent geological disasters and to once again bring major losses to the quake area."
More than 5,000 health workers have fanned out to disinfect the hundreds of wrecked villages, and doctors and nurses are stationed round the clock in refugee camps to try to prevent survivors from falling sick.
"We are most worried about plague, so environmental hygiene is of top importance. Such a huge movement of people inevitably means that all sorts of viruses and bacteria move with them. We are also afraid of meningitis," said an unnamed health official in Mianyang.
More than 20,000 survivors are packed into the Jiujiang Sports Stadium in Mianyang city, about a two-hour drive from Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu.
The government has ordered the urgent shipment of millions of doses of Hepatitis A, encephalitis B, hemorrhagic fever and cholera vaccines to the area, state media reported.
State Council Information Office figures showed that the number of dead now exceeded 51,000, an increase of 10,000 on the previous day's toll. It said more than 29,000 were still missing.
The possibility was also raised that UN chief Ban Ki-moon might visit Sichuan after his trip to cyclone-struck Burma.