LOS ANGELES (AP) – As communities across the country experience the pain of an increase in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they should turn away bereaved families if they have no more room for the corpses to pile up not.
The head of state funeral services says mortuaries are being flooded as the United States approaches nearly 350,000 deaths from COVID-19. More than 20 million people in the country are infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“I worked in the funeral industry for 40 years and never in my life thought it could happen, that I should tell a family, ‘No, we can not take your family member,'” he said. Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
Continental takes out an average of about 30 body removals a day – six times its normal dose. Mortuary owners call each other to see if anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: they are full too.
To keep up with the flood of corpses, Maldonado rented extra 15-foot refrigerators for two of the four facilities she manages in LA and surrounding provinces. Continental has also been delaying pickups at hospitals for a day or two while dealing with residential customers.
Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said the entire process of burying and cremating bodies has been delayed, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. During normal times, cremation can occur within a day or two; now it takes at least a week or longer.
Achermann said that in the southern part of the state, ‘every funeral home I talk to says,’ We row as fast as we can. ”
“The volume is just incredible and they fear they can’t keep up,” he said. “And the worst of the boom can still be ahead of us.”
Los Angeles County, the center of the California crisis, has surpassed 10,000 deaths from COVID-19 alone. Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed and struggle to keep up with basic things like oxygen, as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with breathing problems. On Saturday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crew members showed up to update the hospital’s oxygen delivery systems.
Nationally, on average, just over 2,500 people have died from COVID-19 in the past seven days, according to Johns Hopkins data. The number of daily newly reported cases in that period averaged almost 195,000, a decrease of two weeks before.
It is feared that holiday gatherings could fuel a further increase in business.
Arkansas officials reported a record number of more than 4,300 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that the state “is definitely in boom after Christmas trips and gatherings” and added, “As we enter this new year, our first decision must be to follow guidelines.”
North Carolina officials also confirmed a record 9,527 cases on New Year’s Day. This is more than 1,000 cases above the previous daily high.
A funeral was held in Louisiana on Saturday for an elected congressman who died of COVID-19 complications. Republican Luke Letlow passed away on Tuesday at the age of 41. He leaves behind his wife, Julia Letlow, and two children aged 1 and 3 years.
In Texas, state officials say they have only 580 intensive care beds available, as staff treat more than 12,480 patients with coronavirus in the hospital, a number that has risen steadily since September and reached record highs in the past week.
In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation stayed in the middle of a weekend exclusion to try to slow down the rate of infection. The tribe reported another seven deaths late Friday, bringing the total number since the pandemic began to 23,429 cases and 813 deaths. The discussion includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The number of infections is thought to be much higher than reported because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest that people can become infected with the virus without feeling sick.
Arizona reported 18,943 new cases Friday and Saturday, a record for the state in any two-day period. There were also 46 new deaths reported on Saturday.