China earmarks 80 mln yuan for Xizang quake relief, recovery efforts

China has allocated 50 million yuan (about $7.5 million) in emergency disaster relief funds and earmarked another 30 million yuan for recovery efforts following a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.

The earthquake struck Baqen County, Nagqu City, at 10:33 p.m. on Thursday, leaving 16 people dead and 76 injured as of 1 p.m. Friday.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management jointly allocated 50 million yuan to support rescue operations and assistance to affected residents, while the National Development and Reform Commission earmarked the additional 30 million yuan from the central budget to help restore damaged infrastructure and public service facilities.

The country has upgraded its national earthquake emergency response from Level IV to Level III.

On Friday afternoon, the Ministry of Emergency Management, in a separate statement, also announced an upgrade of the national natural disaster relief response to Level III, saying that additional joint working groups were dispatched to disaster areas to guide relief efforts.

It said that on top of the 5,000 relief items previously allocated by the central government, an additional 5,000 central relief items, including tents, coats and folding beds were allocated.

The ministry said, by coordinating efforts with other relief agencies and companies, it has also promptly allocated 43,000 other relief items, including mobile toilets, heating stoves, food and fuel, to ensure that affected people are properly resettled.

China's national comprehensive fire and rescue force has dispatched a total of 350 rescuers and 83 vehicles for rescue operations. The emergency management ministry has guided Xizang's emergency management department in arranging for Wing Loong drone deployment to the quake-hit area for disaster reconnaissance.

As of 6:30 a.m. on Friday, 120 rescuers and 27 vehicles had arrived in the quake-hit area, while the remaining 230 rescuers and 56 vehicles from the Xizang fire and rescue corps were en route as reinforcements, having all entered Nagqu's administrative area.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it has worked swiftly to organize local telecom operators to carry out emergency repair and restoration work on affected communications facilities.

As of 10:30 a.m. Friday, all of the 628 base stations that went out of service due to the quake in Nagqu City have been restored, it said. "At present, emergency command communications at all levels of government are unimpeded, and public communications services are functioning normally."

Earlier, as of 4:30 a.m. on Friday, authorities had mobilized relief supplies at the central, regional, municipal and county levels, and delivered them in batches to the affected area.

These supplies included 1,000 prefabricated housing units, 3,239 tents, 2,821 folding beds and 4,280 quilts, among other essentials.