Cuyahoga County could be the next to use a refrigerated truck in response to overflowing morgue space.
Medical Examiner and Coroner Thomas Gilson said during a press conference Friday (December 4) that he was drafting a request for refrigerated units as COVID-19 deaths surge, prompting a need for extra morgue space.
The upcoming request follows a similar move by Stark County, which recently began using a refrigerated trailer to store bodies.
"Over the Thanksgiving weekend we became completely filled out here at the morgue,” said Stark County Coroner Dr. Anthony Bertin. Bertin said, adding that “the fallout we're seeing from COVID as far as the increased suicides, domestic violence, and alcohol-related deaths.”
Although they didn’t disclose the name, Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center’s Dr. Andy Thomas and Gov. Mike DeWine confirmed that a northern Ohio hospital had ordered a refrigerated truck to serve as extra morgue space in a press conference on Monday (November 30).
The COVID-19 testing positivity rate at Cuyahoga County hospitals reached 15% on November 13, according to a Cuyahoga County Board of Health resolution implementing a stay-at-home advisory on November 18.
That advisory remains in effect, slated to expire December 17.
The Ohio Department of Health tracked nearly 456,000 total cases and more than 6,880 deaths statewide as of Friday. The department noted, however, that Friday’s data is incomplete as officials “work through (a) surge in testing.”
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