The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring region remained unchanged as 69,227 as of Thursday noon, the State Council Information Office said in a statement.

The numbers of people listed as missing and injured were 17,923 and 374,643 respectively.

As of Thursday noon, a total of 1,486,407 quake-affected people had been relocated.

Among 96,544 persons who were hospitalized for injury, 93,597 had been discharged, the statement said.

The government spending on disaster relief and reconstruction had topped 80.936 billion yuan (about US$11.87 billion), including 73.457 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.479 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 59.468 billion yuan in cash and goods by Thursday noon. Of this, 26.88 billion yuan had been forwarded to quake-hit areas.

About 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 4.15 million tons of fuel and 8.86 million tons of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

Relief workers have built 677,131 temporary houses for relocated people.

In the 72 hours ending Thursday noon, 397 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 31,222 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

A total of 481,942 tons of grain and 12,168 tons of cooking oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Wednesday, the statement said.

Of the 53,295 km of roads damaged in the quake, 53,020 km had been restored, according to the statement.

And 128,163 of the 138,960 business outlets damaged by the quake had been reopened, the statement read.

As of Thursday noon, 215,851 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 856,560people had found jobs in their hometowns.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2008)