New Zealand Covid: Refrigerated containers needed after fears of morgues reaching capacity

An expert fears “nothing in New Zealand” is prepared for a major Covid outbreak, with health boards taking grim measures in the event of increasing deaths.

Concerns of morgues being overrun in the event of a major outbreak have caused New Zealand health bodies to hire and buy refrigerated containers.

This is because not all district health boards (DHBs) in New Zealand have morgues with many relying on funeral businesses to help store deceased bodies, reports Radio New Zealand.

Speaking to the public broadcaster, University of Auckland’s epidemiology professor Rod Jackson said it wasn’t just the country’s morgues that would struggle under a major outbreak of Covid.

“Nothing in New Zealand is prepared for an outbreak of Covid, a major outbreak,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about the morgues, hospitals, (or) primary care.”

Epidemiology professor Rod Jackson shared his grim prediction that New Zealand facilities would encounter a lot of stress. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images.

Radio New Zealand also contacted several providers of large-scale refrigeration devices, who confirmed representatives from various DHBs had been in contact.

“They bought them. We couldn’t reuse them if they’d had bodies inside, we couldn’t wash them down and put somebody’s food inside,” said Glenn White, a sales manager for refrigeration services IRS.

The business also confirmed they’ve provided five plug-in, chilled containers to various DHBs and funeral homes through the course of Covid.

Hospitals and primary care facilities are also at risk of overwhelm. Picture: iStock.

Fellow Pacific Island country, Papua New Guinea has also experienced immense pressure on their hospital morgues.

On October 26, The Guardian reported that its National Pandemic Response team approved a mass burial of over 200 bodies after a hospital morgue in Port Moresby was at maximum capacity.

Built to store 60 bodies, the facility was housing over 300, with authorities forced to use refrigerated containers to facilitate storage requirements.

This comes as the PNG government is struggling with the country’s worst outbreak since March 2021, with the country’s vaccination rate sitting at just 1.7 per cent.

Extreme vaccine hesitancy has contributed to PNG’s low vaccine rate. Picture: St John’s Ambulance/Facebook

While New Zealand has yet to experience a major outbreak of the virus, the country is currently recording its biggest rises in daily Covid figures.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reported 206 new infections, with 73 New Zealanders currently in hospital and seven in intensive care due to the virus.

Despite this, Ms Ardern said “better times are coming,” crediting New Zealand’s high vaccination rate of 64.7 per cent.

“Over the coming weeks, we will see the level of protection in our communities increase as more people are vaccinated,” she said.

“In fact, we’re on track to have among the highest vaccination rates in the world, already having overtaken the likes of Australia, the US, the UK, France, Germany and Ireland.”

To date, New Zealand has recorded 31 deaths and a total of 7287 confirmed cases. Out of these, 2764 cases are currently active.