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

The number of people listed as missing and injured stood at 18,209 and 374,176 respectively.

As of Thursday, nearly 1.49 million quake-affected people have been relocated.

Among the 96,451 hospitalized for injury, 90,846 had been discharged, the statement said.

The government disaster relief fund had topped 61.6 billion yuan (about US$8.93 billion), including 55.1 billion yuan from the central budget and 6.5 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 58.6 billion yuan in cash and goods by Thursday noon. Of this, 22.2 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 2.3 million tons of fuel oil and 4.91 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Wednesday, relief workers had built 564,200 temporary houses and another 14,300 were being installed, with 29,900 to be built.

In the 72 hours ending Thursday noon, 636 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 and one between 5.0 to 5.9 magnitude were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 19,749 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

A total of 266,999 tons of grain and 8,992 tons of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Wednesday, the statement said.

Of the 48,276 km of ruptured water supply pipelines, 44,755 km had been restored as of Thursday noon, according to the statement.

Of the 53,295 km of roads damaged in the quake, 52,475 km had been restored, according to the statement. And 29,073 km of the 36,198 km ruptured telecommunication optical cable had been restored.

As of Thursday noon, 143,022 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 628,870people had found job in their hometown.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2008)