Upon liaison with Police, the Housing Department will remove burnt scaffolding on the external walls of Wang Cheong House, Wang Tai House and Wang Sun House at Wang Fuk Court, Tai Po, starting this Friday.

Meanwhile, the Buildings Department’s orders to remove scaffold nets has all been complied with. It will announce a new set of arrangements within this week requiring scaffold nets used at construction sites to be sampled on-site and certified as compliant with the relevant standards prior to installation, so that the relevant external wall work can resume as soon as possible.

Financial support

As of noon today, donations received by the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po had reached about $3.1 billion. Combined with the $300 million in startup capital from the Government, this takes the fund to a total of around $3.4 billion.

The fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1,717 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 109 cases had been processed.

Furthermore, the Government announced today that a new special one-off grant of $100,000 under the fund will be provided to flat owners at all the eight blocks at Wang Fuk Court.

Social workers from the Social Welfare Department have been in contact with more than 1,980 affected households, and more than 4,900 residents have been registered for the “one social worker per household” follow-up service.

Accommodation arrangements

As of this morning, a total of 1,435 residents had been accommodated under the co-ordination of the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 2,677 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or the Hong Kong Housing Society.

Separately, the temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre has ceased operation as users there have all relocated to the emergency accommodation arranged by the Government. The temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall will remain in operation until existing users have moved to the emergency accommodation.

Relief supplies

On the Government's online platform for donated supplies, about 1,700 registrations have been received, with approximately 30% submitted by organisations. Over 16,300 donated items, covering various categories, have been distributed.

Regulation work 

The Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit has inspected the 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. The contractor concerned has completed removing all the miscellaneous items on the scaffolding.

As of 4pm today, the Labour Department had inspected 404 construction sites, issued a total of 210 written warnings and 104 improvement notices, and taken out 25 prosecutions.