国内英语新闻:Significant progress made in quake relief: Chinese vice premier

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said Wednesday significant progress had been made in relief work in Yushu region since it was hit by a strong earthquake a week ago.

"Rescuers have reached all affected villages, all the injured have been cured or are being treated, all the seriously injured have been transferred for treatment outside the quake zone, and all survivors have emergency shelters," Hui said at a meeting in Beijing.

The State Council, or Cabinet, meeting on quake relief started Wednesday morning with a brief silence in respect for the dead, which numbered 2,183 by Wednesday afternoon.

A medical worker of the Chinese public security frontier defense troop helps Zhaxi Deleg of the Tibetan ethnic group injured in the earthquake to bandage up his leg in Gyegu Town of Yushu County, northwest China's Qinghai Province, April 20, 2010.

People felt reassured and the society was stable in Yushu, Hui said at the meeting.

He instructed officials to start planning reconstruction while taking into full consideration the geological, climatic and demographic characteristics of the quake zone.

At a similar meeting on Monday, Hui said the government would promptly draw up and implement reconstruction plans based on scientific assessment and good planning.

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai Province, also left 84 people missing, and 12,135 injured.