| China's disaster relief departments have initiated a first-class emergency response for disaster relief work in the quake-hit areas in Qinghai Province.
The decision was made by Civil Affairs Ministry and State Disaster Relief Commission on Wednesday afternoon.
The first class emergency response means relief funds allocated by the country's financial departments should be delivered to quake-hit areas no later than 24 hours after the quake. Relief materials should be sent to the affected areas by train or airline as quickly as possible.
Also, a nationwide donation campaign should be organized, and worldwide collections should be put under centralized management.
A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, which has left about 400 people dead and 10,000 others injured, according to local authorities.
Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has urged to take the rescue work as the first priority at the conference of the earthquake relief work headquaters held in the worst-affected area late Wednesday.
Hui arrived at the the quake-hit Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in northwestern China's Qinghai Province at around 7:20 p.m.
Hui called for joint efforts of the military forces and the local people to search and rescue the trapped and injured people and to minimize the casualty.
He called for further efforts in the allocation of the homeless people and other measures to secure the social stability.
Hui also visited some injured people and medical care workers in the area.
The Public Security Ministry (MPS) has dispatched 1775 firemen, 460 police officers and 160 medical care workers from provinces and regions including Guangdong, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet and Ningxia to the affected areas as of 10:45 p.m, with life-detection equipment and rescue dogs.
The rescue teams from the MPS have saved more than 900 people from the debris of collapsed houses.
The MPS also has urged traffic authorities of Qinghai province to ensure the delivery of relief workers, materials and injured victims and to prevent major traffic jams or car accidents.
The ministry has urged all traffic policemen to stay at work and carry out upgraded patrol.
Qinghai traffic authority has set up an emergency response team and green pathways in the entire transportation network of Qinghai.
Now traffic control is imposed on the gateways to Qinghai in neighboring provinces, to make sure that all vehicles on the road make ways to quake-relief vehicles.
The ministry advised drivers en route to Qinghai from other provinces to learn traffic information from radio, televisions and electronic screens on the road in order to cooperate with the traffic control.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has set up a contingent leading group led by the Health Minister Chen Zhu and the Vice Health Minister Zhang Mao.
The ministry has decided in an urgent meeting of the leading group to start the first-class response plan for health in natural disaster and to deploy health resources nationwide for the disaster relief work.
As of 6 o'clock p.m., the ministry has dispatched 287 health personnel from Qinghai and neighboring Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet, among which a 123-member health group from Qinghai and a 71-member group from Sichuan has already arrived in the quake-hit region and launched relief work.
The MOH has organized 18 groups of 396 health experts and 60 groups of 1320 health care workers ready to be deployed on call.
The MOH also instructed the local heath departments to be prepared for the blood supplying work in emergency and told the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to take precautious efforts against the spread of pestilence.
China Youth Development Foundation also has sent medicine and other supplies worth 1 million yuan ($146,480) to the affected areas.
The Chinese Red Cross Foundation has sent an urgent relief fund of 1 million yuan to its branch in Qinghai for the quake-hit areas to by tents, cold-proof supplies and foods and to support the victims.
A seven-member advance rescue team from the foundation's Beijing branch has set for Qinghai by car with a rescue dog and rescue equipments. The Beijing branch will send five more rescue workers by air on Thursday.
Another 52-member rescue team with eight ambulances, logistic vehicles has been sent by the foundation at 8 o'clock. The team is expected to arrive at Yushu about 40 hours later.
The foundation has announced to collect donations from the society.
The China Charity Federation also urged the public to donate and to help the victims in earthquake. The federation has sent a first batch of tents worthy of 1 million yuan to the quake-affected zone.
A local police officer said many injured were in desperate need of medical help. Materials and medicines such as medical alcohol, gauze and anti-inflammatory drugs were desperately needed.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has deployed three large planes to transport rescuers and relief materials to Yushu.
Two Il-76 aircraft have arrived at Yushu airport with rescuers and equipment from the national earthquake rescue team in Beijing in one, while the other has delivered 100 rescuers from China's mine exploration team, stationed in Chengdu.
Sources with the Air Force said another Il-76 heavy carrier which brings 100 geological experts and heavy vehicles will take off from Chengdu on Thursday and head for Yushu.
The 110 members of China International Search and Rescue Team(CISAR) who were air-transported by the PLA Air Force's Il-76 carriers arrived in Yushu on Wednesday evening.
The rescuers include veteran engineers and medical experts who also bring nine sniffer dogs to the epicenter.
Northwest Xinjiang Military Sub-Command has deployed three Russian-made helicopters carrying 19 rescuers who will arrive in the epicenter on Thursday afternoon.
Three more military helicopters with the command have also been called to standby for further rescue operations in the area.
Two detachments consisting of 91 soldiers with northwest Lanzhou Military Command have taken their ways from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to the epicenter, one by air and one by road traffic.
The detachments have carried with life-detection equipment and other earthquake relief devices.
The PLA air force has also ordered 1,500 of its airborne forces and 100 parachute troops to prepare to assist in rescue operations in the quake zone.
Many others are still buried under the debris of collapsed houses near the epicenter. More than 85 percent of the houses in Jiegu Township, near the epicenter, had collapsed.
A 15-member rescue team from the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) left Beijing on a flight to Qinghai at 11:40 a.m., the CEA said in a statement to Xinhua.
In addition, a 62-member rescue team of the provincial earthquake department in Qinghai was en route to Yushu, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in western Qinghai, while 40 rescuers had been dispatched from Qamdo, in neighboring Tibet, the statement said.
Rescuers in neighboring Gansu, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Ningxia were also on the way to the region, according to the CEA.
The armed police headquarters had ordered 600 officers, stationed in Yushu, to take part in the rescue work and 2,100 more officers in Qinghai were on stand by, according to a headquarters spokesman.
The Lanzhou Military Command has sent one of its top medical teams, including six vehicles and 31 medical workers specialized in high-altitude operations, the military command headquarters told Xinhua.
Army personnel stationed in Yushu had been ordered to help with rescue work immediately and a regiment stationed in Xining, the Qinghai provincial capital, were en route to the region, the sources said.
The military command has also sent 14 special vehicles for food supply to Yushu.
The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping has sent two aircrafts for remote sensing and six technicians to the quake-hit areas. Two more aircrafts will set for the areas on Thursday.
A remote sensing aircraft sent by the PLA Navy has arrived at Yushu as of 3:30 p.m.
Chinese Academy of Sciences has also sent aircraft equipped with remote sensing camera to Qinghai.
In addition, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a press release that it would send 5,000 tents, 50,000 cotton coats and 50,000 quilts to the quake-hit region.
The provincial government had also arranged to send 5,000 tents, the statement said.
The Ministry of Education has also started its first class emergency response plan.
Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation has sent a letter to its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, to express deep concern over the loss of lives and property incurred by the quake.
The Red Cross organization in Taiwan has sent a letter to the mainland to extend consolation and the willingness to offer assistance in the rescue work. The fire crew in Taipei would be sent to Qinghai for rescue work upon request, the letter said.
Fire-fighting authorities in the island indicated that a group of 23 rescuers would be in place in four hours any time upon request.
(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2010) | 
