LOS ANGELES (AP) – While communities across the country feel the pain of an increase in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in Southern California’s center of gravity say they should refuse bereaved families as they run out of space for the bodies they pile up.
The head of the state association of funeral directors says mortuaries are being flooded as the United States approaches 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years and I never thought in my life that this could happen, that I would have to say to a family: ‘No, we can’t take a member of your family,’” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
Continental is doing an average of 30 body removals a day – six times the normal rate. The morgue owners are calling each other to see if anyone can handle the overflow, and the answer is always the same: they are also full.
To accompany the flood of bodies, Maldonado rented extra 15-meter refrigerators for two of the four facilities he runs in Los Angeles and neighboring counties. Continental has also been delaying collections in hospitals for a day or two while serving residential customers.
Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said the entire process of burying and cremating bodies has slowed down, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. During normal times, cremation can take place in a day or two; now it takes at least a week or more.
Achermann said that in the southern part of the state, “all the funeral homes I talk to say, ‘We’re rowing as fast as we can’.”
“The volume is just incredible and they fear they won’t be able to keep up,” he said. “And the worst of the wave may still be ahead of us.”
Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the California crisis, has exceeded 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. Hospitals in the region are overburdened and are struggling to keep up to date with the basics, such as oxygen, while treating an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory problems. On Saturday, teams from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived to update the oxygen delivery systems of some hospitals.
Nationally, an average of just over 2,500 people have died of COVID-19 in the past seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The number of new cases reported daily in that period averaged close to 195,000, a decline from two weeks earlier.
It is feared that festive events could fuel yet another increase in cases.
Arkansas officials reported a record of more than 4,300 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Governor Asa Hutchinson tweeted that the state is “certainly up after the holidays and Christmas parties” and added: “As we enter this new year, our first resolution should be to follow the guidelines.”
North Carolina officials also reported a record 9,527 confirmed cases on New Year’s Day. This is more than 1,000 cases above the previous daily high.
In Louisiana, a funeral was being held on Saturday for an elected congressman who died of COVID-19 complications. Republican Luke Letlow died on Tuesday at the age of 41. His inauguration 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 the team treats more than 12,480 hospitalized patients with coronavirus, a number that has steadily increased since September and reached record levels last week.
In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation remained in the middle of a weekend blockade to try to lower the infection rate. The tribe on Friday reported another seven deaths, bringing its total since the start of the pandemic to 23,429 cases and 813 deaths. The reserve includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The number 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 bad.
Arizona registered 18,943 new cases on Saturday on Friday and Saturday, a record for the state in any two-day period. He also reported 46 new deaths on Saturday.