Coronavirus: Hong Kong funeral homes ‘fully booked until mid-April’ amid rising Covid death toll

Funeral homes are fully booked until mid-April amid Hong Kong’s rising Covid-19 death toll, with the suspension of simple farewell ceremonies at hospitals and the long processing time of death documents worsening the bottleneck, according to operators.

The Hospital Authority, meanwhile, confirmed on Friday that online pictures showing a number of bagged bodies being placed next to patients in wards were taken earlier. It apologised for the stress caused to the patients and said the problem had been rectified.

Kwok Hoi-bong, chairman of the Funeral Business Association industry group, said the government had to do more to resolve bottlenecks.

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“Even though the government has increased the capacity of cremation incinerators to between 260 and 280 corpses a day, it has not given thought to other areas,” he told a radio programme.

Kwok, who attended a meeting with government officials on Thursday, said funeral parlours were fully booked and most did not have slots available until mid- or late April. Only 121 funeral halls were available in the city, he said, but the average daily death toll had reached about 200.

He said the authority should allow simple funeral services to be performed at internal service halls at public hospitals for families to bid their final farewells.

Twenty-four hospitals under the authority used to offer “farewell services” by providing a small room for relatives to hold simple memorial rites, and the bodies would then be taken directly to a crematorium or cemetery.