The coronavirus epidemic is wreaking havoc in the United States.
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superstock / sipa
California authorities announced Thursday, January 7, that they had deployed at least 166 refrigerated trailers to serve as temporary morgues in hospitals overwhelmed by Covid-19-related deaths.
With at least 2,500 deaths from the coronavirus each week, California has become one of the main hotbeds of the pandemic in the United States and traditional mortuaries are full.
Contamination had started to multiply even before Thanksgiving family reunions at the end of November spread the coronavirus even further in the United States.
The most populous US state is now bracing for an “explosion upon explosion” of cases, fueled by Christmas and New Years festivities.
Converted trailers
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the emergency services of California, therefore activated the "plan for the management of mass deaths", to ensure that all the deceased can be "treated with respect and dignity".
As most refrigerated trailers are not specifically designed as mortuaries, they will be fitted out to at least double their body storage capacity.
Members of the National Guard were also dispatched this week to assist forensic services in Los Angeles, where one person dies from Covid-19 every fifteen minutes.
According to the
Los Angeles Times
, funeral directors are forced to turn away grieving families because they no longer have the capacity to care for the deceased.
Most counties in California, including Los Angeles - where ambulances often turn for hours before finding a bed for their patient - have restrictive measures in place that limit travel and activities.
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