Covid-19 coronavirus: Hospitals overflowing with bodies in US epicentre

A body wrapped in plastic is loaded onto a refrigerated container truck used as a temporary morgue by a medical worker at Brooklyn Hospital Centre in New York. Photos / AP

It has become a grim ritual outside New York City's hospitals: workers in protective gear loading the bodies of coronavirus victims into refrigerated trailers.

A surge in deaths in the epicentre of the crisis in the US has overwhelmed the city's permanent morgues and filled storage spaces in many hospitals to capacity.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues, the city said.

It's been that way for days at Brooklyn Hospital Centre, where a worker today wheeled out a gurney carrying a body covered in white plastic, a forklift operator carefully raised a body into the trailer and undertakers came to claim the remains of yet another of the city's nearly 1000 coronavirus dead.

The hospital said in a statement that the "unprecedented crisis calls for extraordinary measures" and that extra storage is needed "to accommodate the tragic spike in deaths, placing a strain on the entire system of care — from hospitals to funeral homes."

New York Police Commissioner says 15 percent of uniformed officers are out sick amid coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/pEMQiR9QeU

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 31, 2020

"Grieving families cannot quickly make arrangements, and their loved ones who have passed are remaining in hospitals longer, thus the need for this accommodation," the hospital in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighbourhood said.

The city's medical examiner's office has also started operating a makeshift morgue, as it did after the September 11 attacks, to provide emergency capacity as the city's permanent facilities fill up.

The city's coronavirus death toll more than doubled in the past four days, surging from 450 on Friday to 932 as of today.

The city and Fema have delivered refrigerated trucks to various hospitals, while the Office of Chief Medical Examiner has been guiding them on how to properly move and store bodies, officials said.

"To see the scenes of trailers out there and what they're doing with those trailers — they're freezers, and nobody can even believe it," US President Donald Trump said.

New York City launches online portal providing residents with information and updates if they or someone they know has contracted the coronavirus. https://t.co/4C5COmvW8L

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 31, 2020

At some hospitals, like Lenox Hill in Manhattan, the trailers are being parked on city streets, along footpaths and in front of apartments. Cars and buses passed by as bodies were loaded outside the Brooklyn Hospital Centre.

Cellphone videos posted on social media over the weekend drew attention to hospitals using trailers to store bodies. An image from one video of the activity outside Brooklyn Hospital Centre appeared on the front page of the New York Post.

"It's hard to believe this, but this is for real," said the man shooting the video, his voice quaking. "Lord have mercy, help us Lord, this is for real."

- AP