China quake casualties remain unchanged

Source: Xinhua | 07-21-2008 17:47

BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring region stood at 69,197 as of Monday noon, the State Council Information Office said in a statement.

The number of people listed as missing and injured also remains unchanged compared with that of Sunday, standing at 18,222 and 374,176 respectively.

As of Sunday, nearly 1.49 million quake-affected people have been relocated.

As of Monday noon, among the 96,449 hospitalized for injury, 90,472 had been discharged, the statement said.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 61.5 billion yuan (about 9.04 billion U.S. dollars), including 55.1 billion yuan from the central budget and 6.4 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 58.2 billion yuan in cash and goods by Monday noon. Of this, 22.2 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 2.21 million tonnes of fuel oil and 4.71 million tonnes of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Sunday, relief workers had built 546,100 temporary houses and another 14,100 were being installed, with 34,100 to be built.

In the 24 hours ending Monday noon, 220 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 19,112 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

A total of 260,868 tonnes of grain and 8,992 tonnes of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Sunday, the statement said.

As of Monday noon, 137,050 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 618,909people had found job in their hometown.

Editor:Xiong Qu