The US says will resume military evacuation flights to the United States today for badly injured Haitian earthquake victims after a four-day suspension over cost and treatment questions.
"Having received assurances that additional capacity exists both here and among our international partners, we determined that we can resume these critical flights," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement yesterday.
Medical workers in Haiti had said the suspension put seriously injured patients at risk.
Elsewhere, 10 Americans face a court hearing in Port-au-Prince today after their arrest on suspicion of trafficking children.
The five men and five women from an Idaho-based charity deny wrongdoing after they were arrested trying to take 33 children to the neighbouring Dominican Republic without documents proving adoptions had taken place or that the children were orphaned by the earthquake.
On a more positive note, food distribution to quake survivors, which has been chaotic at times in recent weeks, went more smoothly yesterday using a coupon system that targeted women as recipients of the rations.
Nearly three weeks after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 Haitians and left up to one million more homeless, a huge US-led international relief operation has been struggling to help injured and hungry survivors.
Hundreds of patients have already been evacuated to the United States for treatment, most to Florida hospitals. But Florida's governor had asked the federal government to share the burden, triggering a halt in the Medevac flights.
The White House statement yesterday said patients were being identified for transfer, doctors were making sure it was safe for them to fly and that paediatric care was being prepared aboard the aircraft where needed.
The state of Florida is identifying hospitals to receive the patients, Mr Vietor added. He said Haiti's government had estimated there were more than 200,000 injuries from the January 12th earthquake.
Haitian authorities have held the 10 Americans from the New Life Children's Refuge group in custody in Port-au-Prince since their arrest late on Friday at the Malpasse border crossing with the Dominican Republic.
Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive said they could face serious accusation. "We did not arrest Americans, we arrested kidnappers," Mr Bellerive said. "We just hope that the people were acting in good faith and that they were doing what they were doing to try to help the children."
Reuters