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The skin is now needed to treat patients severely injured by the volcanic ash and gas. On Tuesday, medical officials said 27 people in hospital had burns to at least 30% of their bodies and many have inhalation burns that require airway support. Every burns unit in the country is at full capacity.
"We currently have (skin) supply, but are urgently sourcing additional supplies to meet the demand for dressing and temporary skin grafts," said Peter Watson of the District Health Boards on Wednesday. "We anticipate that we will require an additional 1.2 million square centimeters (1,292 square feet) of skin for the ongoing needs of the patients."
To put that into context, the average human body has about 11 square feet (1 square meter) to 21 square feet (2 square meters) of skin surface area.
The demand for skin is particularly high given the unprecedented number of severe burns to the victims, authorities said Wednesday. The patients' burns are already serious from their close proximity to the volcano during the eruption -- but the injuries were also complicated by gases and chemicals, Watson said.
When White Island erupted, there would have been so much poisonous gas released that people would have been able to taste the chemicals, said Jessica Johnson, a volcanologist at the University of East Anglia in England.
The volcano -- which has an acidic lake in its crater -- would also have thrown out boiling hot steam clouds, she added. The patients' severe burns were probably from these steam blasts, she said.
Apart from the steam, they could also have been injured by "very hot rock debris," said Monash University volcanologist Raymond Cas.
These complications meant the patients needed to be rushed to surgical treatment more urgently that with usual burn cases, Watson said on Wednesday, adding, "This is just the start of a very long process that, for some patients, will take several months."
Isaac Yee contributed reporting.