Funeral directors are being told to create makeshift face masks out of “towels, bin liners and incontinence pads”, as they remove the bodies of coronavirus victims, because of a severe shortage of protective equipment in the UK. Faced with the unprecedented task of retrieving and arranging the burial and cremation of growing numbers who have died of Covid-19, funeral staff say they are increasingly concerned at the risk because of the lack of masks and protective gowns. With the death toll from the virus mounting, they are calling for a minister to take charge of burials and cremations, and warning of a backlog of bodies. The Lancashire coroner has advised funeral directors to treat all sudden deaths in the community from now on as a suspected coronavirus fatality because people with symptoms have been told to self-isolate and may be undiagnosed victims.