Government to begin distributing 30 million locally-produced masks to the public free-of-charge starting next Tuesday

     The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau announced today (June 25) that the Government will begin to deliver masks free-of-charge to all residential addresses in Hong Kong through Hongkong Post starting next Tuesday (June 30). Each household will receive a pack of ten disposable adult masks. The masks that will be distributed are the first batch procured by the Government under the Local Mask Production Subsidy Scheme. The Government wishes to share these masks with the public and fight the virus together.
 
     At present, Hongkong Post's delivery service covers approximately 2.88 million residential addresses in Hong Kong. Hongkong Post will begin to deliver masks to these addresses from June 30 onwards. To make the delivery process simple for the public, there is no need for any pre-registration.
 
     The postman will directly insert a pack of ten masks (measuring 230 millimetres by 135 millimetres) into an adequately-sized residential letter box. If the pack cannot be inserted into the letter box, the postman will attempt door delivery. If no one is at home, the postman will leave a notification card. With the notification card, the pack of masks can be collected at the designated post office within 28 working days. Details of the delivery process are set out in Hongkong Post's short clip (https://youtu.be/p1e0jkbQkcU).
 
     As for the small number of residential households not currently covered by Hongkong Post's delivery service, alternative delivery arrangements will be made, which include assistance provided by the Social Welfare Department and the District Offices.
 
     Hongkong Post will suitably arrange for additional manpower for the distribution exercise, which will take approximately three weeks to complete. As such, the public will receive their masks at different times.
 
     For enquiries about the mask distribution exercise, please call the dedicated hotline 183 6136 or email to enquiry@maskdistribution.hk starting from 9am tomorrow (June 26).
 
     The Government launched the Local Mask Production Subsidy Scheme under the Anti-epidemic Fund to provide financial assistance to 20 local mask production lines. The Government estimates that when all the 20 subsidised lines are in full production, every month they will collectively supply about 34 million masks to the Government and about 7.6 million masks to the local market.