The death toll from the devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake three weeks ago in Sichuan Province increased by three to 69, 019 as of Monday noon, the Information Office of the State Council said.

It said 373, 573 people were injured and 18, 627 others were still missing.

The office said that 45.55 million people were affected by the quake, of whom 15.15 million had been relocated.

Hospitals had treated 92, 973 injured survivors as of Monday noon, of whom 68, 565 had been discharged, 11, 832 were still being treated and 10, 015 were transferred outside of Sichuan for further treatment.

As of Sunday, relief workers had evacuated about 1.05 million people.

In the 24 hours ended at noon Monday, 187 aftershocks were detected, putting the total number of aftershocks since May 12 at 9, 897. All the new aftershocks through Monday noon measured below magnitude 3.9.

As of noon Monday, the government disaster relief fund for the quake zone had hit 23.03 billion yuan (about 3.29 billion U.S. dollars), which included 18.68 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.35 billion yuan from local budgets, the office said.

Domestic and foreign donations had reached 41.74 billion yuan. About 11.53 billion yuan in cash and relief materials had been forwarded to the earthquake- affected areas, it said.

Relief supplies, including 712, 900 tents, 4.41 million quilts, 11.53 million garments, 650, 000 tons of fuel oil and 1.35 million tons of coal were sent to the quake-hit areas.

The 11, 500 temporary houses set up in the quake zone were supplemented by another 8, 300 constructed by Sunday.

As of Monday morning, 98.8 percent of the bank branches in the area had resumed normal operations, but 159 were still closed.

June 3                            Special Report