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

In the 24 hours ended on Thursday noon, one person listed as missing had been found. This reduced the number of missing to 18,237. The number of injured stood at 374,176, showing no change since July 2.

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

Among the 96,449 hospitalized for injury, 90,138 had been discharged, while 3,658 people remained under care, the statement said.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 60.5 billion yuan (about US$8.77 billion), including 55.1 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 58 billion yuan in cash and goods by Thursday noon. Of this, 21.3 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 2.08 million tons of fuel oil and 4.45 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Thursday, relief workers had built 515,600 temporary houses and another 18,600 were being installed. Materials for 34,300 of the shelters had arrived in the affected areas.

In the 24 hours ending at Thursday noon, 207 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 18,291 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

Of the 138,956 quake-ravaged business outlets, 126,248 had reopened as of Thursday noon, according to the statement.

A total of 255,241 tons of grain and 8,829 tons of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves, the statement said.

As of Thursday noon, 130,383 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 611,363 people had found job in their hometown.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2008)