Relief workers had finished building all the 677,131 temporary houses needed in the areas ravaged by the May 12 earthquake as of Wednesday, according to a statement released by the State Council Information Office on Thursday.

The death toll from the Magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring region remained unchanged at 69,226 as of Thursday noon.

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

As of Thursday noon, a total of 1,486,407 survivors had been relocated.

Among the 96,544 who had been hospitalized for injuries, 93,361 have been discharged, the statement said.

Government spending on relief and reconstruction had reached 67.55 billion yuan (about 9.87 billion US dollars), including 60.09 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.47 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 Thursday 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, 3.78 million tonnes of fuel and 8.07 million tonnes of coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

Between Monday noon and Thursday noon, 569 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 and one between 4.0 to 4.9 magnitude were monitored in the quake zone, while no aftershock at or above 5.0 magnitude were reported, according to the China Earthquake Administration. A total of 29,053 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

The statement said 458,872 tonnes of grain and 11,944 tonnes of edible oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Wednesday. It also said that 128,114 of the 138,960 businesses damaged had reopened.

Of the 53,295 km of ruptured road, 52,960 km had been restored as of Thursday noon, according to the statement.

As of Thursday noon, 200,839 survivors had found jobs outside of the area, while another 828,931 were employed in their home towns.

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2008)