A California air quality agency has temporarily suspended limits on how many bodies can be cremated amid a lack of storage space for those who died of the new coronavirus.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an emergency order on Sunday that temporarily suspends authorization requirements for crematoriums for at least the next 10 days in Los Angeles County.
The air pollution agency limits the number of remains that can be cremated each month, based on the potential impacts on air quality. However, the pandemic has caused the current death rate to skyrocket, putting pressure on hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums.
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National Guard members assist in processing COVID-19 deaths and place them in temporary storage at the coroner’s office in Los Angeles on January 12, 2021. (Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office via AP, Archive)
“The current death rate is more than double the pre-pandemic years, causing hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums to exceed capacity without the ability to process the backlog,” South Coast AQMD said in a press release.
The order came at the request of the LA County coroner’s office and the LA County Department of Public Health “to protect public health and respond to the current emergency.”
As of January 15, more than 2,700 bodies were being stored in local hospitals and in the LA County coroner’s office, according to the order.
Refrigerated trucks and National Guard members were recently sent to the county to help the coroner deal with temporary storage, the KTLA said.
Meanwhile, a report released last week by Los Angeles County Health Services said that about one in three people in Los Angeles has been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
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Earlier this month, health officials said one person died every eight minutes of the virus in LA County.
The emergency order raising the limits noted that the coroner anticipates another increase as a result of the New Year’s holiday, “since deaths tend to occur 4-6 weeks after meetings”.
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Early Tuesday, Los Angeles County reported more than 1,024,190 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 13,936 deaths from the virus. Currently, there are 7,328 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 23% are in ICU, according to the latest figures from the municipality.
Fox News’ Madeline Farber contributed to this report