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A Hong Kong funeral directors association warned Thursday that more ‘ambush-type’ lockdowns – the government’s latest approach to coronavirus testing – would result in a backlog of bodies awaiting burial, local media reported .
Sixty funeral homes in Hung Hom, an area of Kowloon slated to undergo further virus testing in the coming days, are said to be rendered unable to do their jobs because workers could not enter the locked areas to operate the salons, Ng Yiu-tong, the president of the Funeral Business Association told Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).
The funeral homes concerned handle more than half of the dead in the city per day. There are around 47,400 deaths per year in the city and cremation or burial can take from weeks to months due to local bureaucracy.
“If you miss a scheduled hour, neither the money nor the time can make up for the grief in the family. How do you give them another schedule? It’s very difficult,” Ng told RTHK.
As the plots allocated by the government are few and far between and difficult to find, funeral homes are responsible for housing tens of thousands of funeral urns for families who have been waiting, sometimes for years, to find a final resting place for their loved ones. .
Ng called on the government to exercise discretion to allow those working in the industry to enter isolated areas.
“The government will continually review the provisions for mandatory testing in … specific areas taking into account the development of the epidemic, including whether new ‘specific areas’ will be demarcated,” a spokesperson said in a statement. .
As of Thursday, Hong Kong had recorded 10,332 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 176 deaths.
Source: GNA
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