The death toll in China's major earthquake increased by 4,820 to 60,560 as of Saturday noon, according to the State Council Information Office.

And 352,290 people were injured and 26,221 missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwest China’s Sichuan Province on May 12.

A total of 45.5 million people have been affected by the quake, and nearly 14.4 million quake-affected people have been evacuated, according to the office.

As of Saturday noon, 178 aftershocks measuring above 4 on the Richter scale had been monitored in Sichuan and among them, 27 aftershocks measured above magnitude 5, and four above magnitude 6, said the office.

It also revealed that medics have treated nearly 290,000 quake victims. A total of 75,086 injured victims have been hospitalized after the quake. Among them, 40,644 have been discharged from hospitals, 23,864 are still in hospital and 4,274 were transferred to other hospitals out of Sichuan for treatment.

The Ministry of Health said that as of 10 a.m. Saturday, no major epidemic or emergent public health incidents have been reported, and disease prevention staff had covered 95 percent of all the townships in quake-hit areas.

The government has allocated 15.1 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) for quake relief operations as of 2:00 PM on Saturday. Among them, 11.1 billion yuan had been allocated from the central budget and 4 billion yuan from local budgets, the information office revealed.

Domestic and foreign donations for earthquake survivors had reached 26.1 billion yuan in cash and goods, up 1.5 billion yuan from the previous day. Of the total, 3.68 billion yuan had been forwarded to the disaster area, the office said.

Meanwhile, 448,140 tents had been delivered, said Lu Guangjin, an official with the office.

Also, 35,458 makeshift houses, 2,419,347 quilts and 3,304,526 garments had been sent to the region, he said.

About 336,000 tons of fuel and 723,000 tons of coal were sent to the region as well, he noted.

The whole line of quake-damaged Baoji-Chengdu railway, a key north-south route in west China, which links Chengdu with Baoji city in neighboring Shaanxi Province, reopened to traffic Saturday after 283 hours of closure, allowing batch transport of disaster relief goods to Sichuan.

No. 977 train carrying urgently needed relief goods of tents and medicines passed through the railway's No. 109 tunnel at 9:53 AM on Saturday, where a 40-car freight train derailed and was trapped, paralyzing the railway in the May 12 earthquake.

Electricity had been partially restored in 16 counties in Sichuan by Saturday noon, but two hard-hit counties (Beichuan and Lixian) were still blacked out.

Telecommunications services in all quake regions, except for Hongguang Town, Qingchuan, have resumed. Residents of Hongguang were evacuated because of concern about possible further geological disasters.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2008)