VIDEO: Run Out Of Space, New York Hospitals Are Forklifting Bodies Into Refrigerated Trucks

Medical staff in protective clothing carrying the body of COVID-19 patients into a refrigerated truck is becoming a familiar image in New York hospitals.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 in New York City, the epidemic of coronavirus in the United States, soared to more than 1,500, causing hospital morgues to be overburdened. This means there is no choice for officials other than finding empty spaces to preserve the bodies. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had to send 85 refrigerated vehicles to New York to make a morgue.

This situation has been ongoing in Brooklyn Central Hospital (BHC) since many days ago. The nurses pushed the cart with the body in a white plastic bag out and used the forklift to bring it into the freezer compartment. The body would lie there until the funeral staff took them away.

BHC made an announcement, saying this unprecedented crisis forced them to take special measures. They now need more storage to accommodate the hiking death toll, which has overloaded the care system of the hospital and even the funeral home.

The city's forensic office also opened a temporary morgue like the time after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack to increase the ability to handle bodies.

As quoted in the statement of BHC, families cannot quickly prepare funerals, and the deceased patients remain in the hospital while extra storage space is in need.

As some videos recording the scene of bodies being lifted on refrigerated vehicles have surfaced online, many have been dazed to witness such an unparalleled scene in front of their eyes.

A similar footage posted on Youtube also showed a gurneys line holding bodies while waiting outside Maimonides Medical Center, another Brooklyn hospital to be put in a refrigerated vehicle.

The number of deaths in New York City has exceeded any expectations in the past four days, from 450 on March 27 to over 1,000 on the morning of April 1. Most patients only have mild symptoms such as fever and dry cough. However, elderly people and people with underlying medical conditions may experience serious complications such as pneumonia which leads to demise.

The US has so far recorded nearly 189,000 cases and 4,056 deaths, continues to be the largest epidemic region in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The number of deaths of nCoV in the US has surpassed China, where 3,305 deaths are recorded.

New York is most heavily influenced by COVID-19. Governor Andrew Cuomo had to call for emergency medical assistance in the scenario where the number of deaths from nCoV there has exceeded 1,500.

President Donald Trump also said yesterday that it is unbelievable to see these refrigerated trucks and their function at this time.

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At some hospitals such as Lenox Hill in Manhattan, refrigerated cars parked on the street, along the sidewalk in front of the apartments. Cars and buses still pass by while the patients’ bodies are brought inside.

In such a situation yet it has been said by officials that the worst is yet to come. The coronavirus outbreak in New York state is not expected to reach its peak until the 9th of April, as per an estimate of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The situation in New York hospitals is only part of the current scenario.