LOS ANGELES (AP) – While communities across the country are feeling the pain of an increase in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the Southern California hotspot say they should reject grieving families because they have no room for the bodies left behind. to pile up.
The head of the state funeral directors’ association says morgues are being overrun as the United States approaches a stark 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 20 million people in the country are infected.
“I’ve been in the funeral home for 40 years and have never in my life thought this could happen, that I should say to a family, ‘No, we can’t take your family member’,” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
Continental removes about 30 body removals per day on average – six times the normal rate. Morgue owners call to see if anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: They’re full too.
To keep up with the flood of bodies, Maldonado has rented additional 15-foot refrigerators for two of the four facilities she runs in LA and surrounding counties. Continental has also delayed hospital pickups 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 burial and cremation of bodies has slowed down, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. During normal times, cremation can take place within a day or two; now it takes at least a week or more.
Achermann said that in the southern part of the state, “every funeral home I speak to says, ‘We’re paddling as fast as we can.’ ”
“The volume is just unbelievable and they worry they can’t keep up,” he said. “And the worst of the wave may still lie ahead.”
Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the California crisis, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed and are struggling to keep up with the basics like oxygen as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory problems. On Saturday, crews from the US Army Corps of Engineers arrived to update the oxygen delivery systems of a number of hospitals.
According to data from Johns Hopkins, an average of just over 2,500 people have died from COVID-19 in the past seven days. The number of new cases reported daily in that period averaged nearly 195,000, a decrease from two weeks previously.
It is feared that holiday gatherings could fuel yet another rise in the number of cases.
Arkansas officials reported a record of more than 4,300 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that the state is “definitely on the rise after Christmas trips and rallies,” adding, “As we enter this new year, our first resolution should be to follow the guidelines.”
Officials in North Carolina also reported a record 9,527 confirmed cases on New Year’s Day. That’s more than 1,000 fallen 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 died on Tuesday at the age of 41. His swearing-in was scheduled for Sunday. He leaves behind his wife, Julia Letlow, and two children aged 1 and 3.
In Texas, state officials say they have only 580 intensive care beds available as staff treat more than 12,480 hospitalized coronavirus patients, a number that has risen steadily since September and hit record highs in the past week.
In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation was in the middle of a weekend lockout to try to slow the infection rate. The tribe reported seven more deaths on Friday evening, bringing the total to 23,429 cases and 813 deaths since the pandemic started. The reservation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The rate of infections is believed to be much higher than reported because many people have not been tested and studies suggest that people can be infected with the virus without feeling ill.
Arizona reported 18,943 new cases on Friday and Saturday on Saturday, a record for the state in any two-day period. It also reported 46 new deaths on Saturday.