El Paso seeks more morgue workers.
El Paso officials are seeking applicants to work at the morgue as the city’s COVID-19 death toll mounts.
Officials currently are relying on low-level offenders from the El Paso County Jail to help move corpses. Ten mobile morgues are in place to handle the dead.
“All morgue attendants will be tasked with physically moving decedents,” the listing states. “All applicants must be able to lift between 100 to 400 lbs., with assistance. Not only is this assignment physically taxing, but it may be emotionally taxing as well.”
The new hires are needed because of the pandemic, officials said. The county is bracing for an increase in COVID-19 deaths and seeks to hire enough staff to rotate shifts throughout the week.
Attendants, who will work at the county’s Medical Examiner’s Office, will receive personal protective equipment. They also will be tested for the virus before starting. The job pays $27.20 an hour. Offenders from the county jail had been paid $2 an hour.
Applicants must be able to tolerate the sight and odor of the deceased, the listing states, as well as communicate effectively with grieving people who are under extreme duress.
There are over 37,000 active cases of COVID-19 in El Paso. Since the pandemic began, more than 79,000 residents have contracted the virus and 845 people have died.
County Judge Ricardo Samaniego issued a shelter-in-place order Oct. 30, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won an appeals court ruling last week that struck down the order.