Emergency morgues open as deaths spiral

AN emergency morgue that opened on New Year’s Day to deal with the rising coronavirus death toll is taking in bodies at ‘an unprecedented rate’.

The Aylesford Temporary Place of Rest was set up as part of Kent County Council’s worst-case scenario planning last April. It has not been needed until now.

It is the second temporary mortuary to be opened after hospital morgues in Surrey also reached capacity. Around 300 bodies have been sent to Headley Court in Leatherhead in a little more than a fortnight – almost half the number sent over three months in the first wave. Last night, the National Association of Funeral Directors said mortuaries across the country were becoming ‘very tight on space’.

They said members had been ‘extremely busy’ as pressure on the industry ramped up in the last week.

The 10,000sq ft Aylesford morgue, which has room for 25 bodies, was set up last spring when Kent county council set aside £11million to prepare three emergency morgues with space for up to 3,000 bodies.

A virtual council meeting was yesterday told that an ‘urgent requirement’ for more space was made on December 30 due to the pressure on mortuary services across the county. Within 4 hours the Aylesford site was operational and the first body arrived on January 1.

At the meeting, councillor Rob Bird said: ‘We are looking at a dire situation in Kent as more local mortuaries are full. The temporary morgue in Aylesford is having to take bodies in at an unprecedented rate.’

In Surrey, 170 bodies are at the Headley Court facility, which has room for 00 bodies. The county’s hospital mortuaries have a capacity for 600 bodies but are currently full. A spokesman for the Surrey Local Resilience Forum said: ‘To put some perspective on this, during the first wave, they had 700 bodies go through that (temporary) facility. The first wave lasted approximately 12 weeks from mid-March to midMay. Since December 21, after just two-and-a-half weeks, they have had 300 bodies go through it.’

NAFD spokesman Deborah Smith said: ‘It’s a busy time of year for the funeral sector anyway, but this year only more so.

‘The pressures this year are also very different from normal with staff shielding, dealing with childcare responsibilities, or having to self-isolate.’