Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘We can’t take your family member’
Virus victims overload California’s mortuaries
LOS ANGELES — Southern California funeral homes are turning away bereaved families because they’re running out of space for all the bodies piling up during a coronavirus surge that has sent COVID-19 death rates to new highs.
“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years, and never in my life did I think that this could happen, that I’d have to tell a family, ‘No, we can’t take your family member,’” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.
This week Continental averaged about 30 body removals a day, up from about five during normal times, Maldonado said Wednesday. She said mortuary owners are calling each other to see if anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: Sorry, we’re full too.
To keep up with the flood of bodies,
Maldonado has rented extra 50-foot refrigerators for two of the four facilities she runs in L.A. and surrounding counties. And Continental has been delaying pickups at hospitals for a day or two while they deal with residential clients.
Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said mortuaries in the southern part of the state are being “inundated.”
“Every funeral home I talk to says, ‘We’re paddling as fast as we can.’ The volume is just incredible, and they fear that they won’t be able to keep up,” Achermann said. “And the worst of the surge could still be ahead of us.”
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous with 10 million residents, on Wednesday surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths, and the toll hit 25,000 statewide a day later. County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer called it a “terrible milestone,” while noting that more than 7,400 people remain hospitalized with coronavirus in the county, with 20 percent of them in intensive care units.
The milestone came the same day
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an “unprecedented” high of 432 reported deaths statewide, a figure that was probably was elevated because of a lag in reporting over the holidays. The record was shattered Friday when California reported 585 coronavirus deaths.
Southern California has been the epicenter of the virus crisis in the state since the pandemic began. Capacity is manageable in other parts of California, Achermann said, but funeral home directors across the state are prepared to increase their volume.
With mortuaries filling up, there is a backup of bodies at hospitals, said Los Angeles County Director of Health and Human Services Dr. Christina Ghaly. She said the county medical examiner is working to “come up with alternatives for storing those bodies.”
In San Diego County, private funeral homes and the medical examiner have begun helping store bodies after four hospitals reported their morgue capacity was dwindling, said Dr. Steven Campman, the county’s interim medical examiner.