China’s central government has allocated another 30.7 billion yuan (about US$4.52 billion) in funding to help people living in poverty, the finance ministry said Monday.

That has brought this year’s total central government poverty relief funds to nearly 86.1 billion yuan, which has all been allocated at local levels, the Ministry of Finance said.

Up to 97.4 percent of the funding has gone to 22 provincial regions in the central and western parts of the country, the main battleground for poverty alleviation, said the ministry.

The central government has assigned 196.1 billion yuan of poverty relief funding over the past four years, representing annual average growth of 19.22 percent. This year’s funding marks a 30.3 percent increase year on year.

The Chinese government has vowed to lift all impoverished citizens out of poverty by 2020 to build a moderately prosperous society. In 2016 alone, China helped 12.4 million rural residents move above the poverty line.

By the end of last year, there were 43.35 million people living in poverty in China.

One person remains missing and 120,000 residents have damaged property after torrential rain since Friday in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the local government said Monday.

Heavy rain lashed 16 counties and cities, inundating farmland, damaging houses, forcing the evacuation of 1,079 residents and causing direct economic losses estimated at 48.7 million yuan (7.16 million U.S. dollars), according to the latest tally.

The local civil affairs department is investigating the damage and sending relief goods to affected areas.

Rain hit most parts of China’s central, eastern and southern regions over the weekend. China Central Meteorological Station Monday morning maintained rainstorm alerts for a third consecutive day in Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces.

Typhoon Merbok, the second typhoon of the year, is forecast to make landfall in Guangdong late Monday, intensifying rainstorms in southern and eastern regions.

Among China’s 600 million myopic sufferers, almost half the population of the country, Chinese teenagers have the highest ratio in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported recently.

Although the causes of myopia are still unclear, some scientists believe that surroundings in addition to genes and nutrition are a major factor causing impaired eye sights.

Bad habits such as staring for long periods of time at LED electron screens, reading in the either too dark or too bright, sitting with the wrong posture and watching things too close, can all result in myopia.

Some experts even suspect that education models whereby parents in China urge their children to study hard in an attempt to secure access to top-notch universities, have resulted in the prevalence of myopia, especially among college or high school students. Indoor studying has replaced teenagers spending time doing outdoor activities.

Additionally, the emergence of digital products has led children to spend considerable time staring at screens, increasing the burden on eyes and reducing the frequency of blinking.

In spite of the harm resulting from the electronic screens to eyesight, some schools and parents continue to encourage the replacement of books with tablet computers, which, according to some experts, could lead to more children being prone to myopia.

Statistics show that the myopia is rising among young children between the ages of three and six.

According to the guidance of opticians, children from three years old should keep checking their eyes at least once a year. Parents are advised to bring their children to hospitals if the child is squinting or blinking.

Continuous torrential rain since Friday has left 40,000 people with damaged property in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

Heavy rain lashed 142 townships, swamping farmland, damaging houses, forcing evacuation of 295 people and causing direct economic losses estimated at 18.3 million yuan (2.7 million U.S. dollars).

The local civil affairs department is investigating the disaster and sending relief goods to affected areas.

Rain hit most parts of China’s central, eastern and southern regions over the weekend. China Central Meteorological Station Monday morning maintained rainstorm alerts for a third consecutive day in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Guizhou provinces.

Typhoon Merbok, the second typhoon of the year, is forecast to hit the southern province of Guangdong Monday evening, intensifying rainstorms in southern and eastern provinces.

China’s Ministry of Culture has issued a plan calling for targeted poverty alleviation in the cultural field during 2016-2020.

The plan, for the 13th Five-Year Plan period, comes as the country aims to create a moderately prosperous society by 2020, with a key goal to eradicate poverty.

It focuses on artistic creation, modern public cultural services, protecting cultural heritage and development of the cultural industry in poor regions.

Guided by the socialist core values, the ministry said it would step up support in policy and finance, primarily targeting ethnic minority regions, border regions, old revolutionary base areas and concentrated poverty areas.

The central budget will allocate 3,000 yuan (over 441.35 U.S. dollars) for individual theatrical performances to be held every two months in townships in these regions.

There were 43.35 million people living in poverty in China at the end of 2016.