The death toll of China's May 12 earthquake increased by 13 overnight to 69,159 as of Thursday noon, the State Council Information Office said.

A total of 374,141 people were injured and 17,469 others were still missing after the 8.0-magnitude quake devastated southwest China's Sichuan Province and neighboring regions a month ago.

Hospitals had treated 95,516 injured people as of Thursday noon, of whom 77,437 had been discharged and 15,478 were still being treated.

By Wednesday, more than 1.4 million quake survivors had been found and evacuated.

Relief supplies continued to pour into the quake zone. As of Thursday noon, about 1.11 million tents, 4.772 million quilts, 14 million garments, 947,700 tonnes of fuel oil and 2.02 million tonnes of coal had been sent.

The office said as of Wednesday, relief workers had built 92,500 temporary houses and another 27,800 were being installed, while the material for 90,800 makeshift houses had arrived in the affected areas.

As of Thursday noon, the government disaster relief fund had reached 23.61 billion yuan (about US$3.42 billion), including 19.01 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.6 billion yuan from the local budget.

In addition, domestic and foreign donations had reached 44.85 billion yuan in cash and goods, among which 13.97 billion yuan had been forwarded to the quake-hit areas.

In the 24 hours ending Thursday noon, 178 aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone, none above 4.0 magnitude, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 11,779 aftershocks have been detected in the quake areas since May 12.

As of Thursday noon, 6,033 water plants and 40,154.3 kilometers of water supply pipelines had been repaired, according to the office.

The quake had damaged 8,426 water plants and 47,642.5 kilometers of water supply channels.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2008)