Texas and Arizona are bringing refrigerated trucks to expand the capacity of the morgue in several counties in each state, after the number of deaths from coronavirus broke records this week.
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Texas on Thursday reported a record high in single-day deaths with 129 people dead, bringing the total to 3,561. The state registered 10,291 new cases of the virus, bringing the total to 292,656.
Reuters reported that San Antonio and Bexar County received five refrigerated trailers to store up to 180 bodies as some hospital and funeral morgues have reached capacity.
Two additional counties, Cameron and Hidalgo, also share a refrigerated trailer to cope with the influx.
As the United States surpassed its peak in a single day, reporting 77,255 new cases of COVID-19, the data showed that nearly 20 percent of those cases were in Texas.
In Bexar County, Texas, on July 15, 2020, a refrigerated trailer is seen that the San Antonio health authorities acquired to store bodies, as morgues in hospitals and funeral homes reach their capacity with deaths from the disease of the coronavirus (COVID-19). San Antonio / Brochure via REUTERS
In Arizona, 58 people died, bringing the state’s total deaths to 2,492. In total, 135,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in that state, that number increased 3,259 on Thursday alone.
Maricopa County authorities described a “ripple effect” as deaths increased and funeral homes experienced an accumulation of bodies.
Executive Director of Public Health Marcy Flanagan explained that a coroner generally completes an autopsy of the bodies of coronavirus victims and then releases the deceased to a funeral home.
“If there is no place to release them, that is, a funeral home, then that is when we have to start storing bodies for longer than we normally store in the medical examiner’s office,” Flanagan said Thursday at a press conference.
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The Office of the Medical Examiner said it currently has a 63 percent mortuary capacity, but has brought in 14 cold storage containers that would allow an additional 294 deaths by the end of next week “if needed,” the agency said. .
