The Ministry of Health has purchased up to 220 million yuan (some US$31.7 million) worth of medical care products to areas hit hard by the May 12 Wenchuan Earthquake, according to Mao Qunan, spokesman of the ministry.

At the same time, some 1,898 tons of disinfectants have been delivered to the quake areas, meeting people's basic demands there, Mao said.

China's health system has organized an estimated 139,642 medical workers for earthquake relief, 91,298 of whom are engaged in Sichuan Province, according to Mao.

The majority of medical workers at the relief work front now consists of physicians and skin disease experts, instead of mainly surgeons in the early period after the quake, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2008)