The death toll of China's major earthquake stood at 69,197 for the fifth day in a row as of Saturday noon, the State Council Information Office said in a statement.

The number of the injured also stood at 374,176, showing no change since July 2, while the number of missing dropped by one from Friday's figure to 18,340 after the 8.0-magnitude quake jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province and neighboring regions on May 12.

As of Saturday noon, of the 96,446 injured people who had been hospitalized, 88,554 have recovered and left hospital while 5,243 people remained in hospital, the statement said.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 59.04 billion yuan (about US$8.56 billion), including 53.69 billion yuan from the central budget and 5.35 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached close to 57.29 billion yuan in cash and goods by Saturday noon, of which 20.9 billion yuan had been forwarded to the quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 1.93 million tons of fuel oil and 4.12 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Friday, relief workers had built 474,900 temporary houses and another 27,500 were being installed, while the materials for 41,200 of such shelters had arrived in the affected areas.

In the 24 hours ending at mid Saturday, 198 aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone, all below magnitude 3.9, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 17,191 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

Of the 53,295 km damaged roads, 52,450 km had been restored as of Saturday noon, according to the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)