Four hardest-hit towns relocate quake victims from tents to houses

People in the four towns hit hardest by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Jishishan county, Gansu province, on Dec 18 have been relocated to prefabricated houses from tents, as relief work has entered the phase of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, local authorities said at a news conference on Friday.

As of 3 pm on Friday, a total of 15,812 prefabricated houses have been built in the severely affected towns of Dahejia, Shiyuan, Liugou and Liuji in Jishishan to accommodate those who lost their homes in the disaster.

Another 1,165 prefabricated houses have been built for schools' teaching, accommodation and office use.

All related supporting facilities have been put in place, including those for heating, toilets, water, electricity and communication.

Police stations, medical rooms and material distribution points have been set up at the resettlement sites to ensure that the affected people have hot meals, bedding, warm clothing, clean water and medical services.

The selection of location for new residential housing in the disaster-stricken areas will be completed before Jan 15, 2024, to ensure that people can move into their new houses by the end of October.

"As of Dec 25, all schools in Jishishan have resumed classes," said Han Shujun, an official from the Gansu Emergency Management Department, adding that the majority of shopping malls, supermarkets, stores, restaurants, farmers' markets and e-commerce express logistics points in Jishishan have resumed operations.

Except for Dahejia town, resumption rate of operation entities has reached over 90 percent.

Bai Yuping, deputy director of the Gansu Provincial Health Commission, said that all the 784 injured people have received timely and effective treatment. Currently, the number of hospitalized patients has fallen to 152, and the number of critically injured patients is three.

Starting Friday, the neighboring Qinghai province terminated the level-II emergency response to the earthquake, the Qinghai provincial earthquake relief headquarters said.

The level-II response is the second-highest in China's four-tier earthquake emergency response system.

Xinhua News Agency contributed to this story.