Source: Hong Kong Information Services
The Government announced that it has so far disbursed an emergency subsidy of $10,000 to 1,931 households affected by the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po.
As of 4pm today, donations received for the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po amount to about $3 billion, on top of the $300 million startup capital from the Government, taking the fund’s total to around $3.3 billion.
It earlier announced that the fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1,125 cases have been processed. The living allowance has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000 and will be disbursed in phases.
The fund will also provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 85 cases have been processed.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department 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.
Accommodation support
As of this morning, a total of 1,403 residents have been accommodated through the co-ordination of the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 2,599 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society.
The Transport Department is steering public transport operators to enhance franchised bus services, green minibuses and residents’ services (RS) to support residents affected by the fire who have been admitted into transitional housing in various districts. Among them, an additional shuttle bus service has been launched connecting Good House in Tai Po, Tai Po Centre and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, while a supplementary RS has been introduced connecting THE STEP, a transitional housing project in Yuen Long, and Tai Po Market Station.
Relief supplies
On the supplies donation online platform, the Government has so far received over 1,500 registrations, of which approximately 30% were submitted by organisations. Over 4,800 pieces of donation items covering various categories have been distributed to different places.
Inspection work
As of 3pm today, of the some 200 private buildings installed with scaffold nets, 175 have had their scaffold nets removed from the external walls. The removal work at another 52 private buildings is underway and expected to be completed in one to two days.
Three applications requesting additional time involving three buildings were received, and the relevant contractors indicated that they will aim to finish the removal work by next week.
The Buildings Department (BD) is now pressing ahead with the formulation of a new set of arrangements requiring the scaffold nets used at construction sites to be sampled on-site and certified as compliant with the relevant standards prior to installation. The BD aims to make an announcement within the next week so that the relevant external wall work can resume as soon as possible.
In view of the suspension of repair work on external walls of those buildings, after joint deliberation by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and the Development Bureau, the CIC will expand the quota of the current Multi-skilled/Skill Enhancement courses, which are tuition-free and with subsidies, and reserve 5,000 training places for affected workers, whose trades include plumbing, window framing, painting and decoration, plastering and bamboo scaffolding.
Depending on the specific trade course and training hours, workers who complete the training and obtain qualifications can receive a maximum subsidy of $14,000 to $19,000. Applications for the programme will open on December 8.
As of 4pm today, the Labour Department has inspected 318 construction sites, issued a total of 163 written warnings and 95 improvement notices, and has taken out 25 prosecutions.