Relevant government departments have carried out their co-ordination work and proactively followed up on the handling of deceased bodies in public mortuaries so as to address their next-of-kin’s concerns in a swift manner.

The Department of Health made the statement today in response to media reports on the issue, noting that its public mortuaries have been operating round the clock with the personnel there working 24 hours on shift.

To cope with the sudden increase of bodies during the epidemic, the department's Forensic Pathology Service has arranged additional timeslots on Saturday for body identification in the Kwai Chung and Kowloon Public mortuaries.

Additionally, the department has decided that this special arrangement will be extended to Victoria and Fu Shan Public mortuaries shortly while the Kowloon Public Mortuary will also provide service on Sunday mornings.

Since early March, the Department of Health has been deploying internal resources with more civil servants and recruiting contract staff involving doctors and personnel of other grades to speed up the process of body identification, claiming and autopsy. Through the deployment of internal manpower, the department has also strengthened the handling of public enquiries of public mortuaries.

To speed up the handling of cases passed away at the Accident & Emergency Departments and transferred to the storage facility, Police will assist in contacting the next-of-kin for the body identification matters.

Police have started calling the next-of-kin for arranging the necessary procedures and provided them telephone numbers for enquiries.

Starting next Monday, the next-of-kin may identify bodies at the storage facility as arranged by Police.