Two refrigerated trucks to store bodies in Tarrant County as COVID-19 pandemic worsens
Two refrigerated trucks will be used by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office to store bodies amid the COVID-19 surge in North Texas, according to officials at the medical examiner’s office.
Authorities anticipate the surge will increase over the next six to eight weeks during and through the holidays.
The trucks, which were acquired on Dec. 3, are parked near the medical examiner’s office, 200 Feliks Gwozdz Place.
Each truck will be able to store 50 bodies, according to officials at the medical examiner’s office.
“Many of the local area hospitals and larger funeral homes have reached their storage capacity or will reach the total storage capacity soon,” said Chief Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani in a Thursday news release.
The normal capacity at the medical examiner’s office is 100 bodies, and authorities said there were more than 85 there on Wednesday, according to KXAS-TV.
The medical examiner facility in Fort Worth has three walk-in coolers that can store 100 bodies, Peerwani said.
County officials expect they’ll need to start using the trucks within a few days.
As of Thursday, Tarrant County has reported a total of 115,476 COVID-19 cases, including 927 deaths and an estimated 82,938 recoveries.
There are currently a record 898 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the county.
MedStar ambulance crews established a new record on Tuesday, responding to 134 COVID-19 related calls.
A 17-year-old Fort Worth boy was among the 15 latest COVID-related deaths reported by Tarrant County on Wednesday, according to Cook Children’s Medical Center. He’s the youngest reported coronavirus death in the county. Wednesday’s total was the most COVID-related deaths since a pandemic high 22 were reported on Aug. 22.
Tarrant County reported 14 more COVID-19 deaths and 1,215 cases on Thursday as hospitalizations and ventilator use hit all-time highs.
The need for the refrigerated trucks also stems from an increase of homicides in Fort Worth this year.
Fort Worth has surpassed 100 homicides in a year for the first time since 1995, a grim milestone that represents a dramatic increase in violent crime across the city.
Last year, at this time, the city had 64 homicides on record, according to data from the police department. That’s compared to the total of 103 homicides this year reported as of Dec. 2.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 10:11 AM.
