A total of 40,854 people have been confirmed dead in last week's massive earthquake in Sichuan Province alone and another 263,395 people injured as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan Province, repeated the call for urgent aid of tents at a press conference here, adding the province was also in need of more sprinklers, sweepers and mobile toilets.

So far 66,649 people have been rescued from the rubble and 5.2 million people relocated in Sichuan, Li said.

Sichuan has transferred 1,973 injured people to cities including Chongqing, Xi'an and Guangzhou, and planned to transfer another 3,700 injured people on Wednesday.

There were no reports of epidemic outbreaks or serious mass health accidents in Sichuan, the vice governor said.

The national death toll increased by 1,278 to 41,353 as 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

And 274,683 people were injured and 32,666 missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12.

According to the Department of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, rescuers saved and evacuated 396,811 people from the quake-hit areas to safe places, including 6,452 survivors dug out from the rubble.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)