The death toll from the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province and its neighboring region as of Thursday noon was 69,227, 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, 93,459 had been discharged, the statement said.

The government spending on disaster relief and reconstruction had topped 67.556 billion yuan (about 9.88 billion U.S. dollars), including 60.087 billion yuan from the central budget and 7.469 billion yuan from the local budget.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, domestic and foreign donations had reached 59.391 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, 3.93 million tonnes of fuel and 8.4 million tonnes 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, 500 aftershocks at or below magnitude 3.9 were monitored in the quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 30,235 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

A total of 471,846 tonnes of grain and 12,013 tonnes of cooking oil have been allocated to the quake zones from central reserves as of Thursday, the statement said.

Of the 53,295 km of roads damaged in the quake, 52,994 km had been restored, according to the statement.

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

As of Thursday noon, 207,547 quake-affected people had been organized to work outside of the quake zone, while another 842,399people had found jobs in their hometowns.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2008)