At least 1,000 people died, 2,000 were injured and 10,000 homes were destroyed in Wednesday's quake, after the U.N. humanitarian bureau warned that the likelihood of a disease outbreak after the quake was of particular and serious concern, Reuters reported.

"The people are extremely needy for food and clean water," Afghanistan's health ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman told Reuters, adding officials had managed medicines for now but handling those who had lost their homes would be a challenge.

"We ask the international community, humanitarian organizations to help us for food and medicine, the survivor might catch diseases because they don’t have proper houses and shelters for living," he said.

The United Nations and several other countries have urgently sent aid to the affected areas, and more are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has called for the lifting of sanctions and the freezing of billions of dollars in central bank assets stashed in Western financial institutions.

In Kabul, hospitals accustomed to treating war victims have opened their rooms to earthquake victims, but most people remain in earthquake-ravaged areas.