Photos: El Paso doubles mobile morgue capacity amid new COVID-19 surge - Business Insider
Category: News & Politics
Via: sister-mary-agnes-ample-bottom • 4 years ago • 25 commentsBy: Ashley Collman (Business Insider)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Medical workers in one of three refrigerated trailers at the rear of the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner in Texas on Monday. Jorge Salgado/Reuters
- The Texas county of El Paso recently doubled the number of mobile morgues it has on hand to process coronavirus deaths.
- The county — which has the second-highest number of active cases in Texas — now has 10 mobile morgues.
- Texas has recorded the most coronavirus cases in the US, recently becoming the first state to surpass 1 million.
- The local news station KFOX reported that coronavirus patients were dying at such a rate in El Paso that medical examiners hadn't been able to keep up with the workload.
The Texas county of El Paso has more than doubled its supply of mobile morgues as it struggles to process a backlog of dozens of bodies of victims of the state's new coronavirus surge.
As of Wednesday, El Paso County had more than 28,000 active coronavirus cases, making it the second-most-infected county in the state, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Harris County, where Houston is located, has the most active coronavirus infections, the agency said.
Coronavirus patients are dying at such a rate in El Paso that medical examiners haven't been able to keep up with the workload, the local news station KFOX reported.
A mobile morgue set up outside the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner, in undated footage from KFOX. KFOX
According to KFOX, the county set up its third and fourth mobile morgue units a little more than a week ago when it was dealing with a backlog of 85 bodies.
Since then, it has received 93 more bodies, prompting county officials to more than double their mobile morgue units to a total of 10, KFOX reported. Mobile morgues are typically refrigerated trucks or trailers that are cool enough to store bodies.
The top county official, County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, ordered a two-week lockdown on October 29, when hospitalizations were already over 100% capacity, according to KFOX.
But hospitalizations and intensive-care-unit admissions have continued increasing even since then.
The lockdown is due to expire Wednesday, but Samaniego told KFOX on Monday that he was likely to extend the order.
"The hospitals are still not manageable. We're having an inability to manage fatalities," he said. "It leaves me no choice but to lean towards an extension of the order."
The lockdown has faced backlash from both the city's mayor and the state attorney general, who filed a temporary injunction to stop what they called an "unlawful lockdown order."
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to respond, however, and the shutdown was allowed to go on in the meantime.
One nurse explained how precarious the situation was in an interview with KFOX.
Nick Rose was one of the healthcare workers who went to New York City in the spring, when it was the US epicenter of the outbreak. But he said what he's facing now in El Paso was "rougher" than that.
"I've seen more death in the last three weeks than I've seen in a year," Rose said. "I've done compressions on more people in the last three weeks than I have in a year."
Tags
Who is online
429 visitors
Coronavirus patients are dying at such a rate in El Paso that medical examiners haven't been able to keep up with the workload, the local news station KFOX reported.
It's time for Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick to start sending out resumes.
they each need to relocate their executive offices into one of those refrigerated trailers until they can get a handle on controlling the covid health crisis in texas, or they each need to live in one of those trailers until then.
Maybe we can park 1 or 2 full trailers in front of their homes. Unplugged.
they can decorate the exteriors with trump flags ...
We could add loud speakers that a never-ending loop of YMCA.
Hell.... this hoax was never to be heard about after the election. How could this be?
Deadliest hoax in a hundred years...
i'll go with, because that was a stupid ass talking points memo sent out for the GOP'in on our ignorant populaced with an over abundance, that should be overly abundant, to most any , as need not to be a purveyor of porous perpetration's spreading a preposterous predisposed misconception about an easily spread infection, and no, knot tied to Corona 19, just possibly ones perceive3d perception as we witness such extents of deception, and since it and his inception, purveyors of persistent petulance continu to provide people with patterns of pseudo psychological clutter to clog those drained of critical thinking capabilities,like a urinal cake shoved down the throat of a pie eyed pompous ignoramus famous for Peeein in the News for not Russian to false Johns who persecute those prostituted opinions posted via non wait bearing strait out of lunacy lovin loser minions , mind knot, tied to watt they've herd, as immunity impunity of a read will, will never be left for those who preconceived oceans of notions about the currents that take events in polar opposite insurrections via intersections via deflections shielding the unyielding masses from seeing clothed emperors naked and afraid asses, the noose is not, a frayed , so neither are thee, while thy feels like, how mammy more need needlessly DIE, B 4 a liter could be brought to quart ...?
Texas is turning into the new ''hot spot'' for the virus and of course, Patrick is offering rewards for voter fraud. Kind of tells you where his head is at.
... up trump's ass of course.
Last March, he offered to sacrifice himself, and called for others to sacrifice themselves, for the greater good of the economy. What's he waiting for? We are in some deep shit down here.
Here in Las Cruces, NM, the hospitals have announced they have reached full capacity and will be requesting trailers - and we're 42 miles North of El Paso with only a population of 102,926 - BUT - we are at the intersection of I-25 (North/South) and I-10 (East/West) with a lot of stop overs. I expect the rates to climb due to all the travelers on both interstates coming through El Paso.
(sigh) I miss Las Cruces...
Up here we are at capacity on beds. I think the MN Governor's announcement yesterday said there were 11 beds left in Duluth, MN. Also the Duluth police department went on emergency staffing since a full quarter of the department is out sick or quarantining.
I'm afraid Las Cruces is in for it. I promise that we didn't send it there on purpose.
SMAAB - for your information -
As it happened: New Mexico governor announces 2-week 'shelter in place' order.
It ain't pretty. Walmart, Target and other retailers have ALREADY sold out of TP, napkins, kleenix's, personal wipes, eggs, milk, and other "essential" items - and this is BEFORE the two week shutdown starts Monday.
John Fetterman sent a fab tweet out to Dan Patrick.
“Hey, Governor Patrick — it’s your counterpart in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman posted on Twitter. “I’d like to collect your handsome reward for reporting voter fraud. I got a dude in Forty Fort, PA who tried to have his dead mom vote for Trump. I’d like mine in Sheetz gift cards pls. ps. The Cowboys blow.”
Too funny!
source
Some need to do better with the safety precautions...
Everything’s bigger in Texas ... except penises.
And you determined this how exactly?
It’s quite technical. There is a linear inverse relationship between penis size and degree of gun infatuation.
bring the tweezers and a magnifying glass in that part of texas ...
It never ceases to amaze how some folks are just fascinated with penises.
Well, to each their own, I guess.
Illinois, despite being substantially smaller than Texas (less then half the size), has more reported cases on a daily basis.
One can only wonder why there's no outrage about a deep blue state leading the country in reported covid cases. Governors of red states were accused of engaging in human sacrifice with smaller reported cases than Illinois has.
.
"We've rounded the corner on Covid! Or, to be precise, the extra morgue trailers have rounded the corner...".