As of noon today, donations received for the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po reached $2.7 billion, on top of the $300 million startup capital from the Government, taking the fund's total to around $3 billion.
The Government said the fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.
It earlier announced that the Support Fund will 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 73 cases have been processed, and disbursements are underway.
In addition, the Government announced that the Support Fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 923 cases have been processed, and disbursements are ongoing.
It also announced yesterday an increase in the living allowance from $50,000 to $100,000. Those households that earlier received the living allowance of $50,000 do not need to register again, and the additional $50,000 allowance will be disbursed in phases.
An emergency subsidy of $10,000 has been disbursed to 1,930 households so far.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1,900 affected households, and more than 4,900 residents have been registered for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service.
SWD staff also paid visits to the affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Ta Kwu Ling and a youth hostel in Sham Shui Po today and distributed Octopus cards with a face value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travels and address their imminent needs.
Accommodation support
As of this morning, a total of 1,369 residents have been accommodated through the co-ordination of the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms.
Another 2,499 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society.
Hospitalised casualties
The Hospital Authority announced that a total of 79 patients received treatment at various public hospitals following the fire. Among them, 19 were previously listed in critical condition due to severe burns, smoke inhalation and respiratory injuries. After receiving treatment, the condition of all the critical patients has improved. As of 6pm today, 30 patients remain hospitalised, with none in critical condition, six in serious condition and 24 in stable condition, while 49 patients have been discharged.
Missing persons
Police completed searches inside all seven buildings. Officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit conducted searches around the buildings and near the collapsed scaffolding today, which had been confirmed as safe. No human remains were found and the number of deceased remains at 159. The officers also handed over suspected human remains found earlier to forensic pathologists for further testing.
Relief supplies
On the the supplies donation online platform, the Government has so far received over 1,400 registrations, of which approximately 30% were submitted by organisations. Over 2,800 pieces of donation items, including bedding and electrical appliances, have been distributed to the accommodation soon to be open for residents to live in.
Inspection work
The Housing Bureau today continued to arrange emergency maintenance contractors to help Police clear away miscellaneous items at the surroundings of the buildings. Further support works also continued in the small number of units that may be subject to more damage. Upon liaison with Police, the Housing Bureau's Independent Checking Unit started to extract concrete cores from three of the seven affected buildings today.
The Labour Department continues to inspect fire protection facilities and the fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding to ensure the occupational safety of workers. As of 4pm today, it has inspected 300 construction sites, issued a total of 148 written warnings and 79 improvement notices and taken out 25 prosecutions.