The death toll in China's major earthquake increased by five to 69,127 as of Thursday noon, the Information Office of the State Council said.

A total of 373,612 people were injured and 17,918 others remained missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwestern Sichuan Province and some other areas on May 12, while 45.71 million people were affected by the disaster.

Hospitals had treated 97,631 injured people, of whom 74,165 had been discharged, 20,878 were still being treated and 9,595 who were transferred outside of Sichuan Province were still receiving treatment, according to the office.

By Wednesday, 1,112,864 quake survivors had been found and evacuated by rescuers.

In the 24 hours ending Thursday noon, 166 aftershocks were monitored in southwest China's quake zone, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

Among the tremors, two measured from 4.0 to 4.9 on the Richter scale and the others at or below 3.9, the administration said.

An aftershock measuring 5.0 on the Richter Scale jolted Sichuan's Qingchuan County at 12:41 p.m. on Thursday, the administration said.

The aftershock occurred 32.3 degrees north latitude and 105.0 degrees east longitude.

A total of 10,419 aftershocks had been detected in the quake areas since May 12 when the 8.0-magnitude quake struck.

As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, 19,627 companies in the quake-hit areasincluding Sichuan, Gansu, Chongqing and Shaanxi had resumed business operation, accounting for 27.75 percent of the total number of the affected enterprises, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Relief supplies continued to pour into the quake zone. As of Thursday noon, 820,000 tents, 4.71 million quilts, 11.86 million garments, 731,700 tons of fuel oil and 1.54 million tons of coal had been delivered.

The office said that as of Wednesday, relief workers had built 26,300 temporary houses and another 14,300 were being put together, while the material for 68,400 makeshift houses had arrived in the affected areas.

As of Thursday noon, donations from home and abroad had reached 43.76 billion yuan (about 6.34 billion U.S. dollars). The government disaster relief fund had hit 23.18 billion yuan, including 18.69 billion yuan from the central budget and 4.5 billion yuan from local budgets.

So far, nearly 12.80 billion yuan, in cash and relief materials, had been forwarded to the earthquake-affected areas, the office said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2008)