Traditional wooden coffins are being fought in Hong Kong less than against the authorities in order to increase the space for warhouses in the global financial center COVID-19, which is full of funeral homes.

"I haven't seen so many assembled bodies," said Lok Chung, 37, who operates the lessons, and about 40 funerals were held in March, almost 15 in one average month.

"I've never seen family members angry, frustrated, helpless," Chung said in a sober gray suit with a black polo shirt, Reuters reported.

Since the fifth wave of coronavirus hit the former British colony this year, it has reported more than a million infections and more than 8,000 deaths.

When the cemeteries were full, the corpse scenes that were stored in the emergency rooms next to the patients shocked many. The long wait for the processing of death documents hampered the work, added Chung, who left the morgue last week to definitively arrange COVID-19 for his last patient.

And the woman's family, who died on March 1, is still waiting for papers so they can pick up her body, he added.

Traditional paper copies of items, from cars to houses and other personal belongings, were also burned in China as funeral sacrifices for the dead so that they could use them for life.

Much of the delay was attributed to a traffic log from the neighboring South Chinese city of Shenzhen, which supplied many items but is now struggling with its own COVID-19 boom.

The Hong Kong border is largely closed due to disease. Infections among funeral staff are also a major problem, according to another funeral director, Hades Chan (31).

"Nearly a quarter of people are incapable of work. Therefore, some salons even have to put together staff to continue."

Ms Kate, 36, said that her father-in-law's death in March at COVID-19 had caused great emotional damage to the family, adding that she regretted the fact that she had not been able to visit him in the hospital.

"When they thought he couldn't, we went there, but it was too late," the woman told Reuters, giving only one name as she shed tears at the funeral.

"We only saw him for the last time."

China supplies more than 95 percent of the 250 to 300 sarcas that Hong Kong needs every day, according to city food and hygiene official Irene Young. Between 14 and 26 March, it received more than 3,570 cases after the Chinese government coordinated with the mainland authorities.

The six crematoria now operate almost all the time in Young's ward, producing almost 300 fires a day, double the usual number.

And the public morgue was extended to 4,600 bodies from 1,350 earlier, authorities said.

NGO Forget Thee Not has teamed up with organic box manufacturer LifeArt Asia to donate 300 boxes and 1,000 boxes of preservatives to six public hospitals.

Each box made of cardboard with recycled wood fibers can carry a maximum weight of 200 kg. When placed in sarcophagi or body bags, the same powdered preservative becomes gaseous and keeps the body in its natural state for a maximum of five days.

"We are in the eye of the storm," said LifeArt Asia CEO Wilson Tong. "And in the middle of this storm, we're trying to give her a chance to rest."

(Source: // Reuters)