This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

At least 21 people – six of them babies – have so far died as a result of Venezuela’s shattering nationwide blackout, opposition leaders have claimed as they prepared to hold an emergency debate on the crisis in the capital, Caracas.

'A city of shadows': fear as Venezuela's crippling blackout enters day four Read more

“These are not just numbers, these are Venezuelan lives that would not have been lost were it not for the ineptitude of Nicolás Maduro,” tweeted José Manuel Olivares, a doctor and opposition politician who is monitoring its impact on Venezuela’s already debilitated healthcare system.

According to Olivares’s count, 15 patients died in the Manuel Núñez Tovar hospital in the north-eastern city of Maturín after the lights went out there following Thursday’s outage, which has yet to be resolved.

Two newborn babies died in the Hospital de los Magallanes de Catia in Caracas, one of which was suffering from severe malnutrition.

Olivares told the Guardian the number of deaths would rise as the true extent of the calamity became clearer. The power cut meant it had still not been possible to communicate with many hospitals.

Venezuela: blackouts in Caracas – in pictures Read more

On Monday morning, the opposition leader Juan Guaidó – who most western governments now recognize as Venezuela’s legitimate interim leader – hit out at Maduro, who retains the support of China and Russia. “Our people are still living with the threat of new blackouts while these cynics lie and laugh at pain and death,” Guaidó tweeted.

Venezuela’s defence minister, Vladimir Padrino López, said the government was “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis, which it has blamed on a US-backed conspiracy designed to topple Maduro and bring Guaidó to power.

There were reports that electricity had returned to some parts of Caracas while the Chavista governor of the neighbouring state of Miranda claimed electricity had returned to 80% of his territory.

Maduro, who has made just one public appearance since the crisis began, claimed progress was being made towards “reconnection”. “With intense work, love and resistance we will prevail,” he tweeted on Monday.

However, experts fear the crisis – which many attribute to poor maintenance and corruption – is far from being resolved.

Schools and workplaces were again ordered shut on Monday.

“In my house we haven’t had any light since Thursday. There is no water, no [phone] signal, no light, no nothing,” said Anna Ferrera, a student activist from eastern Caracas.

Ferrera said that in the early hours of Monday an electrical substation had exploded not far from her home.

“None of us have ever lived through something like this – not my generation, not my parents, not my grandmother. They say this is like living in a war.”