Funeral Industry Worried About A Hung Hom Lockdown

A representative of the funeral industry says a potential lockdown in an area of Hung Hom would affect more than 60 funeral businesses and their daily work.

Authorities have marked the area bordered by Station Lane, Dock Street, Po Loi Street, Winslow Street, Hung Hom Road South and Chatham Road North as a zone where stricter than usual Covid testing rules apply.

The area will see tests ordered for all residents if their block has just one known infection, or if Covid-19 is found in sewage samples taken from the buildings.

Health officials put another 20 buildings under mandatory testing orders on Wednesday, 11 of them in Hung Hom.

Ng Yiu-tong, the permanent president of the Funeral Business Association said on Thursday that the funeral shops in the area handle around 50 to 60 bodies per day, and any "ambush-style lockdown" there would leave them unable to do their work.

Ng said delaying funerals would add to the sorrow of bereaved families.

“If you miss a scheduled time, neither money nor time can compensate the family’s sorrow. How do you give them another schedule? It is very difficult,” he said.

Ng said authorities had not approached them to discuss the matter, and some workers in the industry have already moved some of their funeral items to other locations, so they could at least continue to carry out some of their work if a sudden lockdown was imposed.

The association leader said he understands that officials want to keep their operations secret, but he hopes they could exercise some discretion during any lockdown and allow workers in the funeral industry to enter a sealed-off area to collect items when necessary.