China quake toll rises to 55,000: official

The death toll from this month's earthquake in central China rose to more than 55,000 Thursday, as officials appealed for international help to provide shelter for millions of people who lost their homes.

The vice-governor of quake-stricken Sichuan province told a news conference in Beijing that the toll had reached 55,239 as of late Thursday, an increase of of about 4,000 from earlier in the day.

Government officials also said there were 29,328 people missing and more than 300,000 injured following the 7.9-magnitude quake that shook the region 10 days ago.

The Foreign Ministry said China needs global support to gather more than 3.3 million tents for quake survivors sleeping in the open, and to house relief workers in areas where buildings were too damaged by the May 12 quake to provide safe shelter.

"We hope and welcome international assistance in this regard," spokesman Qin Gang said. "We hope the international community can give priority in providing tents."

Unlike the reclusive junta in Burma, also known as Myanmar, the Chinese government has opened its doors to international aid and foreign relief experts, although the rescue effort in Sichuan is overwhelmingly led and staffed by the Chinese themselves.

The CBC's Michel Cormier, in Beijing, said there has been an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and aid from people around the country.

"The Chinese have really banded together to send a lot of help to survivors," Cormier said. "People have left their homes to fly, to drive, to bring supplies, and that has not been seen in China before."

Torch relay resumes

China also resumed the Olympic torch relay Thursday in the eastern city of Ningo, but organizers said the procession of the symbol for the Summer Games in Beijing wouldn't visit Sichuan province until early August, just before the Games.

In the areas worst affected by the quake, hopes were fading for more miracle discoveries of people still trapped alive beneath rubble. Rescue workers have pulled several people from debris in recent days, survivors of more than a week without food and sufficient water.

Health experts have warned of diarrhea outbreaks if there's a lack of clean drinking water, as well as infections from physical injuries and outbreaks of respiratory and other diseases associated with crowded and unsanitary living conditions.

The State Food and Drug Administration said on its website it had ordered urgent shipping to the quake area of nine million doses of vaccines for hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever, cholera and other diseases.

In makeshift medical camps beneath canvas and in undamaged buildings, health workers, doctors and nurses are treating people with both modern medicines and traditional Chinese remedies.

Beijing has also announced plans to rebuild one of the worst affected cities, Beichuan, on an entirely new site away from the danger zone.

Government ministries have been ordered to find billions of dollars in savings to set up a reconstruction fund.

Across the earthquake-affected area, questions are being asked about why the thousands of buildings that collapsed, including a large number of schools, weren't built to handle seismic tremors.

In the town of Wufu, where 200 children died when a school collapsed, pictures of a protest banner posted near the rubble appeared on a Chinese-language website.

"The children did not die because of a natural disaster, they died because of a dangerous building," the hand-painted banner said. 

Chinese officials are promising that rebuilt structures will be as quake-proof as possible.