A TOTAL of 784 injured people have been received by medical institutions at the provincial, prefecture and county levels after a magnitude-6.2 earthquake in Gansu Province on Monday, local officials said at a news conference Thursday morning. “After the earthquake, the provincial health commission immediately launched an emergency response and made every effort to treat the injured, provided psychological counseling and some other work,” Bai Yuping, deputy director of the commission, said at the conference. “Medical treatment has been carried out in an effective and orderly manner.” Medical institutions opened special channels to ensure that mildly injured people would receive treatment nearby. Those more seriously injured were quickly transferred to provincial- and prefecture-level hospitals, where experts designed treatment plans for each of them. “We also tried to restore normal medical service in the county,” Bai said. “We have set up 19 medical treatment points and one mobile hospital to meet people’s daily health needs.” The commission has dispatched 21 teams, with 21 ambulances and 63 medical workers to travel deep into 35 villages in the four most affected townships. At the same time, the provincial housing and construction department dispatched experts to the disaster areas to investigate the damage to buildings and municipal facilities, to assess construction needs and to make emergency repairs. “As of 6 a.m. Thursday, engineering and technical experts have completed the preliminary investigation and assessment of kindergartens, schools and hospitals in Jishishan County,” said Qin Jun, a department official. “Emergency assessments of all houses in 19 villages in two townships — Dahejia and Liuji, which were the most severely affected — have been completed.” Water and gas services in the county have resumed, and heating has been basically restored. As of press time, the quake has killed 113 people in Gansu and 22 in Qinghai. As of press time, the disaster had injured 198 people in Qinghai, with 12 others still missing, the provincial emergency management department said. More relief supplies have been allocated to the quake-hit regions, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Wednesday. Some 135,500 relief items, such as cotton tents, rollaway beds, quilts, and heaters, have been sent to the two provinces to support the basic needs of those affected by the earthquake, according to the ministry. Many enterprises have also donated relief items, including over 150,000 kg of fresh vegetables, 11,300 boxes of instant food, 11,000 boxes of bread, and 143,000 heating pads to the quake victims, the ministry said. (China Daily, Xinhua) | 