A total of 9,145 injured people in the quake-hit northwest China have been hospitalized as of Thursday, said a Health Ministry official Friday.

As of Thursday, medical teams had conducted 544 emergency surgeries in the quake zone, said Liang Wannian, head of the ministry's emergency office, at a press conference here.

A total of 35 civilian and military medical teams with 3,346 medical workers have worked in Yushu of Qinghai Province since the region was hit by a major earthquake on April 14, Liang said.

They were equipped with 400 ambulances and the authorities have arranged about 1,000 units of blood, or 200,000 ml, for the quake zone, he said.

Medical teams have received about 40,000 people, ill and injured, in the past eight days, he said.

As the quake zone was at high altitude and local medical facilities were badly damaged in the quake, those seriously injured have been transferred to nearby cities, he said.

Three days after the quake, a total of 1,434 patients in serious conditions were transferred to 38 quality hospitals in the nearby Golmud, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the Qinghai provincial capital Xining, and cities in neighboring Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Tibet.

"Now we will move from emergency treatment to basic health service for locals," Liang said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2010)