The morgue in El Paso has seen such a large influx from people dying of COVID-19 that county inmates are being brought in to help.
Inmates at the El Paso County Detention Facility are assisting the El Paso Medical Examiner with moving the overflow of bodies at the morgue. This was confirmed by an El Paso County Sheriff's spokesperson.
Inmates were seen at the office in full personal protective equipment on Friday.
The inmates were near the mobile morgues and inside of the building, KTSM reports. There are between four and eight inmates from the detention facility's trustee program volunteering daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A spokesperson for the Sheriff's office did not give any specific details about the inmates' formal tasks, just that they were "helping them there."
KTSM previously reported that El Paso has ten mobile morgues set up at the Medical Examiner's office to accommodate for the overflow of bodies awaiting an autopsy.
There were 741 confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 as of Friday. There were an additional 369 deaths that were under investigation. This number jumped from the 232 that were under investigation as of November 1st.
Photo: Getty Images
Source: KTSM