Coronavirus: Hong Kong public hospitals to use refrigerated containers to store bodies ‘if situation demands’ as mortuaries run out of space
- Hospital source says use of refrigerated containers to store bodies is a contingency plan as Covid-19-related deaths have pushed the city’s mortuaries to near full capacity
- Some corpses have remained in the accident and emergency departments for up to a day before being transferred to mortuaries
A public hospital source on Monday said the measure was a contingency plan and would come into effect “if the situation demanded”. The source did not elaborate further on what circumstances such containers would be used under.
The source added that the Hospital Authority was already working on ordering the containers.
Health officials on Sunday said three public mortuaries had reached 90 per cent capacity with 1,350 bodies in the past week due to a record number of deaths resulting from an exponential rise in infections.
Public hospitals have also experienced difficulties in transporting corpses in a timely manner. Some have remained in accident and emergency departments for up to a day before being transferred to mortuaries.
Authorities on Monday revealed another 124 infected residents had died, 87 of them in the past 24 hours and the remaining 37 before that but only reported now due to a backlog, taking the overall tally to 851. Hong Kong also confirmed a record 34,466 infections, bringing the tally of cases since the pandemic began to 205,780.
