The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring region remains unchanged at 69,226 as of Monday noon, according to a statement released by the State Council Information Office.

The number of people listed as missing and injured still stood at 17,923 and 374,643 respectively.

As of Monday noon, a total of 1,486,405 survivors had been relocated.

Among the 96,544 who had been hospitalized for injuries, 92,827 have been discharged, the statement said.

Government spending on relief and reconstruction had exceeded 67.03 billion yuan (about US$9.8 billion), including 59.8 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.23 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 59.29 billion yuan in cash and goods by Monday noon. Of this, 25.31 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 3.28 million tons of fuel and 7 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Sunday, relief workers had built 662,900 temporary houses and another 2,500 were being installed.

Between Thursday noon and Monday noon, 764 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, while no aftershock at or above 4.0 magnitude were reported, according to the China Earthquake Administration. A total of 26,034 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

The statement said 404,944 tons of grain and 9,435 tons of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Sunday. It also said that 127,972 of the 138,960 businesses damaged had reopened.

As of Monday noon, 180,141 survivors had found jobs outside of the area, while another 677,588 were employed in their home towns.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2008)