**The confirmed death toll from Haiti’s devastating earthquake has risen above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone, a government minister has said.**Communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue told AP the count was based on bodies collected in and around the capital by state firm CNE.
Many more remain uncounted under rubble in the capital and elsewhere, including the towns of Jacmel and Leogane.
The search for survivors has officially ended and the focus has shifted to aid.
But a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from the remains of a hotel in the capital on Saturday after 11 days under the rubble, in what rescuers described as “a miracle”.
HAITI’S REMARKABLE SURVIVORS
- Wismond Exantus, 24 - pulled out alive after 11 days
- Emmannuel Buso, 21 - rescued after 10 days
- Marie Carida, 84 - saved after 10 days
- Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - trapped for eight days
- Lozama Hotteline, 25 - pulled out after seven days
- Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - buried for seven days, half her life
- Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after seven days
Haiti quake: Survivors’ stories
‘An extraordinary operation’](http://www.paklinks.com/2/low/health/8477347.stm)
Onlookers cheered as Wismond Exantus - smiling and apparently in a good condition - emerged on a stretcher from what remains of the Napoli Inn Hotel.
He later told reporters that soft drinks and snacks had kept him going. A French medic said he could expect to leave hospital within a day or two.
His rescue came hours after Haiti’s government declared a formal end to the search for survivors.
As the death toll in Haiti has risen, it has become clear the 12 January quake is one of the worst natural disasters to have struck in recent years.
Some say the 7.0-magnitude quake killed as many as 200,000 people, while an estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless.
Ms Lassegue said that the authorities were still far from knowing the total number of those killed.
“Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble - 200,000, 300,000 Who knows the overall death toll” the Associated Press quotes her as saying on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters a day earlier, she said the general hospital had received about 10,000 corpses, which it had handed over to CNE for burial.
At least 75,000 people have been buried in mass graves since the disaster. Relatives have also burnt the bodies of some of the victims.
‘Tremendous need’
Thousands of people joined open-air church services in Port-au-Prince, Leogane - the epicentre of the earthquake - and elsewhere on Sunday.
“What we are going through is not finished, we must reconstruct the country and reconstruct our faith”
Father Glanda Toussaint
A day after the funeral of the capital’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Father Glanda Toussaint celebrated Mass at an altar improvised on a wooden table by the wrecked cathedral.
He told his congregation: “What we are going through is not finished, we must reconstruct the country and reconstruct our faith. As a Haitian, it hurts.”
Meanwhile, BBC correspondents in Port-au-Prince report a few signs of normal life returning to the city, with street stalls starting to sell fruit and vegetables and some shops and banks re-opening.
Queues to withdraw cash have been long, as prices for what is now on sale have increased dramatically and many Haitians have been without access to money for days.
BBC HAITIAN CREOLE SERVICE
- Broadcasting on FM radio daily in Haitian Creole at 0910 local time (1410 GMT), for 20 minutes
- Giving up-to-date information about where to get basic services and aid
- Also available on satellite and online, and via social media
The UN says more than 130,000 people have now been relocated out of Port-au-Prince by the authorities, easing the pressure on overcrowded camps in the city. Others have left independently.
With the search-and-rescue phase officially over, international groups are focused on humanitarian efforts, with aid workers still struggling to get food, water and other supplies to all those in need.
“The aid we have available… is being pushed out,” Lt Gen Ken Keen, commander of the US military operation in Haiti, told Reuters news agency.
“But the need is tremendous. Every day is a better day than yesterday. Tomorrow will be a better day than the day before.”
Foreign ministers will discuss plans for reconstruction at an international donor conference to take place in the Canadian city of Montreal on Monday.