Earthquake death toll in China's Qinghai rises to 34

XINING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that jolted northwest China on Dec. 18 has risen to 34 in Qinghai Province, according to the local earthquake rescue headquarters on Sunday.

By Sunday morning, the last two of 20 missing persons in the city of Haidong had been retrieved, but without vital signs, raising the death toll there to 34, the headquarters said in a press briefing.

With the rescue work coming to an end, the focus is shifting to post-quake reconstruction, it said.

As of Sunday, authorities in Qinghai had built 3,507 prefabricated houses, with over 16,000 affected residents moving in. Meanwhile, more than 7,000 residents in the mountainous areas that are not suitable for the construction of prefab houses have been living in cotton-padded tents.

At the Guanxi village resettlement site in Minhe county of Haidong, villager Zhang Zhiguo said there are currently more than 140 prefab houses there and the village has distributed rice, flour, oil, coal and other supplies.

The village of Kexinmin in Jishishan County, in neighboring Gansu Province, is planning various activities for the first day of 2024, including basketball games and group psychological counseling, to help residents deal with the psychological trauma and to boost their confidence in rebuilding homes.

Jishishan county is the epicenter of the quake that left more than 110 people there dead.