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 1,486,407 survivors had been relocated.

Among the 96,544 who had been hospitalized for injuries, 93,227have been discharged, the statement said.

Government spending on relief and reconstruction had reached 67.47 billion yuan (about US9.86 billion), including 60.08 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.4 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had exceeded 59.35 billion yuan in cash and goods by Monday noon. Of this, 26.77 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 3.68 million tons of fuel and 7.86 million tonnes of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Sunday, relief workers had built 673,500 temporary houses and another 500 were being installed.

Between Thursday noon and Monday noon, 699 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 28,483 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

The statement said 450,218 tonnes of grain and 11,649 tonnes of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Sunday. It also said that 128,102 of the 138,960 businesses damaged had reopened.

Of the 48,276 km of ruptured water supply pipelines, 45,188 km had been restored as of Monday noon, according to the statement.

As of Monday noon, 196,024 survivors had found jobs outside of the area, while another 818,503 were employed in their home towns.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2008)