YANGON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of Myanmar's cyclone storm Nargis mounted to 84,537 and the number of missing went to 53,836, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu disclosed at an ASEAN roundtable on post-Nargis joint assessment for response, recovery and reconstruction held here on Tuesday.
The death toll was up from 77,738 last announced on May 16, while the number of missing was down from 55,917.
The number of the injured remained at 19,359, said Kyaw Thu, who is chairman representing Myanmar in a tripartite core group also involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations (U.N.).
According to Kyaw Thu, all national assets including state corporations, agencies and corporations, and the armed forces have been fully mobilized to assist the cyclone-hard-hit delta area.
He revealed that up to now, a total of 27.6 billion Kyats (25 million U.S. dollars) has been disbursed for emergency assistance.
He said that schooling is restarted despite shortage of school supplies, adding that governance, public services and transportation both land and inland water have been largely back to normal.
He added that the government will continue providing emergency relief to communities that remain in need of assistance and stressed the need for long-term recovery and reconstruction.
The roundtable was set to present initial findings from post-Nargis joint assessment teams which comprises experts from the ASEAN, the U.N. and Myanmar and the field assessment had been conducted on damage and loss for 30 selected townships -- 11 in the Ayeyawaddy Delta and 19 in Yangon division since June 9.
Meanwhile, a tripartite core group involving ASEAN, U.N. and Myanmar has also been working since early this month to make joint assessment on the impact of cyclone Nargis that devastated Myanmarin early May.
The Yangon-based tripartite core group was established at an ASEAN-U.N. international pledging conference held in Yangon in late May as a working mechanism for coordination, facilitating and monitoring the flow of international assistance into Myanmar's cyclone-hit areas.
Cyclone Nargis hit five divisions and states on May 2 and 3. It caused the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.
