BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday orderedtroops to expand the coverage of their quake rescue work and reach allaffected villages within 24 hours.

He also ordered stepped-up epidemic prevention work.

Troopsmust "overcome all difficulties and make sure to go into all villageswithin 24 hours," Wen said, presiding over a meeting of the generalheadquarters of quake relief under the State Council (cabinet).

Wen,who heads the relief headquarters, was briefed during the meeting onthe rescue of trapped people, treatment of the injured, the handling ofvictims' bodies and health and epidemic prevention work in the quakeareas.

The death toll rose to 34,073 as of noon onMonday, according to the headquarters under the State Council. Another245,108 people were injured in the 8-magnitude quake that joltedsouthwestern Sichuan Province last Monday.

Medicaltreatment, epidemic prevention teams and medical equipment and materialmust reach all quake areas, and where no medics or disease preventionworkers have arrived, arrangements must be made for airlifting medicsand medicine to these places, the meeting said.

Withinthe next five days, 500 more health and epidemic prevention workerswould be sent each day to the quake areas, and 1,000 health supervisorswould be deployed, the headquarters said.

The NationalDevelopment and Reform Commission and the Health Ministry were told atthe meeting to mobilize epidemic prevention resources from other partsof the country and commission enterprises in Sichuan or neighboringprovinces to produce disinfectant medicine.

Meanwhile,the meeting urged the immediate printing of 5 million brochures to bedistributed to the quake areas, and it asked newspapers to publishcolumns to enhance the public awareness of epidemic prevention.

Italso asked for the immediate distribution of 400 mobile phones equippedwith epidemic reporting software and positioning systems to Chengdu,the capital of Sichuan, in an effort to beef up the direct epidemicreporting work.