The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province, stood at 69,197 as of Wednesday noon, the State Council Information Office said in a statement.

In the 24 hours that ended on Wednesday noon, 25 people listed as missing had been found. This reduced the number of missing to 18,238. The number of injured stood at 374,176, showing no change since July 2.

As of Wednesday noon, more than 1.48 million quake-affected people have been relocated.

Among the 96,449 hospitalized for injury, 89,779 had been discharged, while 4,019 people remained under care, the statement said.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 59.1 billion yuan (about US$8.44 billion), including 53.7 billion yuan from the central budget and 5.4 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 57.6 billion yuan in cash and goods by Wednesday noon. Of this, 21.2 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 2.05 million tons of fuel oil and 4.38 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Tuesday, relief workers had built 510,000 temporary houses and another 20,000 were being installed. Materials for 34,500 of the shelters had arrived in the affected areas.

In the 24 hours ending at Wednesday noon, 214 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 and one measuring between magnitude 5.0 and 5.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 18,084 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

Of the 35,928 km of ruptured telecommunication optical cable, 28,324 km had been restored as of Wednesday noon, according to the statement.

A total of 254,296 tons of grain and 8,800 tons of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves, the statement said.

As of Wednesday noon, 129,341 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 607,606 people had found job in their hometown.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2008)