Hong Kong’s funeral industry has warned that the number of coffins remains tight despite more being delivered to the city recently adding authorities needed to do more to ensure a steady supply of caskets to cope with a surge in coronavirus-related deaths.

The warning on Saturday came as the city continued to face a shortage in caskets and ritual offerings from mainland China in the wake of a lockdown in neighbouring Shenzhen, further affecting local funeral services.

With cross-border traffic restricted since the lockdown began on Monday, industry leaders have said it was difficult for mainland-made coffins to be delivered to the city.

The government on Friday night said a batch of 330 coffins arrived in the city by land and sea that day, taking the total delivered in the past five days to 1,200.

Another 500 coffins were expected to arrive over the next two days after both Hong Kong and mainland authorities agreed to increase supply, it added.

Funeral industry leaders say Hong Kong is facing a coffin shortage amid a rise in coronavirus-related deaths.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said there were 3,200 bodies being kept in the city’s storage facilities as of Saturday.

Hong Kong Funeral Business Association chairman Ng Yiu-tong said that despite the higher volume and the resumption of production in Shenzhen following an easing of the recent lockdown in some districts, the local supply of caskets was still strained.

“The supply of coffins to Hong Kong has remained tight. We are talking about 200 to 300 deaths every day with over 200 related to Covid-19. It means we need 300 coffins every day to cope with the daily fatalities,” he said.

“If the government can’t ensure a steady and consistent supply of coffins to Hong Kong every day, it will lead to dead bodies piling up in public mortuaries, resulting in grave hygienic problems and an increased risk of another pandemic.”

As coronavirus-related deaths continue to rise in the city, bodies of patients were seen placed on gurneys or beds in public hospitals after morgues reached full capacity.

Hong Kong has been facing a daily average of more than 200 coronavirus-related deaths since early this week. Officials reported 243 fatalities on Saturday, taking the city’s death toll to 5,644. It reported 16,597 infections on the same day, taking the overall number to 1,033,541.

Ng said it could take up to 10 days for the coffins to be shipped from the mainland to Hong Kong, adding that bottlenecks in the logistics chain had remained unresolved in the aftermath of the partial easing of the Shenzhen lockdown.

“Coffins are as essential as rice to people … The government needs to set priorities and ensure a stable supply of coffins to the city,” he said.

Thereza Lee, director of Peaceful Home, a social enterprise providing funeral services, said she had switched to making locally manufactured eco-friendly coffins the default choice in the company’s packages to ensure there would be enough caskets for her customers.

“We want to ensure a stable supply of coffins so we have now adopted the eco-friendly ones, which are more expensive. At least now we can cope with the demand from our customers,” she said.

Meanwhile, police will help contact families of deceased Covid-19 patients to assist in the identification and collection of bodies from storage facilities starting from Monday in an effort to expedite the processing of patients who died in emergency rooms.

A Department of Health spokesman said additional time slots had been made available on Saturdays for body identification in Kwai Chung Public Mortuary and Kowloon Public Mortuary, which would also be extended to Victoria Public Mortuary and Fu Shan Public Mortuary soon. Meanwhile, Kowloon Public Mortuary will begin offering services on Sunday mornings.