Covid Deaths Overwhelm System

This shocking photo of body bags was released on social media

This horrific photograph went viral on Twitter today. It was taken about a week ago at the Accident and Emergency Ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan, where there are six dead bodies in body bags lying in wards where there are three elderly patients.

The image was confirmed by a medic who works in the hospital. Since that picture was taken, the situation has been alleviated with more refrigerator units and mortuaries made available.

When the media asked about the photo this afternoon, the Health Authority's Sara Ho Yuen-ha confirmed it and apologised for the stress it had caused patients.

Ho apologised for the distress to the patients

"The authority is facing an unprecedented challenge... we are very sorry about bringing distress to patients. Our colleagues are also very unhappy about the situation. We hope everyone understands," she said.

Nevertheless it clearly illustrates how overwhelmed the Hong Kong healthcare system is and there is no end in sight with over 15000 people dying from Covid-19 per day, the majority of them elderly.

Another bottleneck has emerged in processing all the paperwork for each deceased person, while funeral homes are booked up until at least mid-April.

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

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

He pointed out there are only 121 funeral halls in the city, but the average death toll was 200 dead per day.

Kwok says deaths are taking longer to process

Kwok said the authority should allow simple ceremonies to be performed in service halls in the hospital to allow families to bid their final farewells before taking the corpses to the crematorium or cemetery. 

While this will alleviate the logistics, there are families who insist in a proper send-off to loved ones. 

He also said death certificates used to take three to four days to be processed and now took six to eight, meaning corpses not being removed in a more timely manner.

Today Hong Kong recorded 29,377 local cases, 18,884 from PCR tests, 10,493 from RAT. There were 294 deaths logged, 196 from the past 24 hours, 98 backlogged. The age rage was 35-105, of the 196 dead, 114 were unvaccinated, 97 from residential care homes.

Currently only 54 percent of Hong Kong residents 80 years and older have had at least one jab. The government has pledged to focus on inoculating elderly people with mobility issues who live on their own. This alarm was sounded months ago by health experts, but the advice was not heeded...