Amid overflow of people dying from COVID-19, Suffolk County is preparing to store bodies in a meat processing plant on the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank, converting it into a makeshift morgue, according to New York Post.
The farm is owned by Suffolk County and run by the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Bellone said the county will use the refrigerated building on the farm. It can hold up to 300 bodies, but it can be increased to 450 if needed. But he fears the county will need additional body bags because of the growing number of deaths in Suffolk.
According to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, an average of 60 people are dying from COVID-19 every day. This wasn't the case a month ago, where the county had not recorded a single death to COVID-19. But on Tuesday, there are now 23,523 cases and over 653 deaths.
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The county has also deployed two refrigerated trucks to store bodies from morgues that have reached peak capacity. Jason Elan, Bellone's spokesperson, said the county's morgue storage capacities are already half full. Once they are full, the refrigerated building will be used.
During the early stage of the crisis, the state discussed using ice rinks and stores with refrigeration capacities to store the bodies. "I made the decision that I was not going to tell families that we need to convert their children's ice-skating rinks and turn them into morgues because that is not who we are," Bellone said to CNN.
Makeshift morgues can also be seen in Cook County, Chicago, and Will County, Illinois.
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Cook County is preparing a 66,000-square-foot facility in the city's Southwest Side. According to WGN 9, the county "will begin taking in bodies, local victims of the pandemic, on Thursday."
The makeshift morgue's location has not been disclosed, but is reported to have a 2,000-body capacity. Those who die from the virus "will now go directly to the surge center from about 20 refrigerated trailers to be placed outside hospitals and the county morgue," the report added.
Cook County has the most COVID-19 deaths in Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, there have been 24,593 cases and 948 deaths due to COVID-19.
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Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot told the Chicago Trubune that Chicago is "beginning to flatten the curve on COVID-19 cases." She reminds everyone to follow stay-at-home measures to slow down the number of cases and deaths.
Medical examiners in the county ensure all victims will be treated with dignity and respect.
Will County has a semi trailer set up behind the Coroner's office when needed. It also acts as a barrier between employees and the bodies, keeping them out of their working areas.
Deputy Coroner Laurie Summers said Will County purchased the trailer after anticipating the number of COVID-19 deaths. In a news report by 1340 WJOL, Illinois has 23,247 confirmed cases and 868 deaths due to COVID-19 ever since the pandemic started.
Illinois governor Jay Robert Pritzker is confident that Illinois is making progress in response to the pandemic.
"To be clear, there is nothing good about twice as many people having this virus, or worse, dying from it, no matter how long the increase takes," he said. "But we won't get to zero cases overnight," he said in a briefing last April 13.
