In response to an order from the Buildings Department (BD), as of 5pm today scaffold nets had been removed from external walls at 227 private buildings.
Work on three remaining cases, in which the BD has allowed an extension of time, is underway. It is expected that the work will be finished this week.
Meanwhile, emergency maintenance contractors, under co-ordinaton by the Housing Department, completed the clearance of miscellaneous items from the surroundings of the Wang Fuk Court buildings today.
In addition, the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) continued to extract concrete core samples from affected buildings. So far, the exercise has covered five buildings.
The ICU has also conducted inspections of scaffoldings at Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin, Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po and Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan. Miscellaneous items were found on some scaffoldings, and the contractor is removing them. The ICU will closely monitor its work.
Financial support
As of noon today, donations received by the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po had reached about $3 billion. Combined with $300 million in startup capital from the Government, this takes the fund to a total of around $3.3 billion.
The fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1,357 cases had been processed.
The fund will also provide the families of each deceased victim with a $200,000 token of solidarity, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 95 cases had been processed.
In addition, the Government has so far disbursed emergency subsidies of $10,000 to 1,932 households. The disbursement is largely complete.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1,970 affected households, and more than 4,900 residents have been registered for the “one social worker per household” follow-up service.
SWD staff also visited affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Yuen Long today and gave them Octopus cards with a value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travel.
Accommodation arrangements
As of this morning, a total of 1,422 residents had been accommodated, under the co-ordination of the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 2,522 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or the Hong Kong Housing Society.
Relief supplies
On the Government’s online platform for donated supplies, about 1,600 registrations have been received, with approximately 30% submitted by organisations. Over 5,700 donated items, covering various categories, have been distributed.
Regulation work
As of 4pm today, the Labour Department had inspected 351 construction sites, issued a total of 180 written warnings and 96 improvement notices, and taken out 25 prosecutions.
