2 Oregon counties seek trucks to hold bodies
(US): Oregon's emergency management department says the state's death toll from Covid-19 is climbing so rapidly that two counties have requested refrigerated trucks to hold the bodies.
Department spokeswoman Bobbi Doan said Saturday that Tillamook County, on Oregon's northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, have requested the trucks. Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw wrote in his request to the state that the county's sole funeral home "is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity" of nine bodies. He added that virus cases among staff have made them unable to transport bodies to other counties.
The refrigerated truck arrived in the county on Friday, loaned by Klamath County, Doan said in a telephone interview.
ICU nears capacity, more mandates imposed in US Intensive care units (ICU) at hospitals across the US are reaching their capacity, and more vaccine and mask mandates as the country is witnessing a resurgence of record Covid-19 cases and fatalities. On August 27, the country reported 155,365 new cases of daily coronavirus, with the 14-day change seeing a 21 per cent rise, Xinhua news agency quoted The New York Times as saying in an update on Saturday.
The daily hospitalisations stood at 98,337, with the 14day change a 28 per cent increase, while the daily death toll was 1,266, with the 14-day change a starling 95 per cent hike, newspaper added.