Various cities and counties throughout the U.S. are readying refrigerated mobile morgues as hospitals prepare for the expected holiday COVID-19 surge.
Newsweek noted that mobile morgues are used to preserve dead bodies once hospital morgues run out of space.
In Arizona, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved an emergency request for $65,000 to spend on a 16-foot refrigerated mobile morgue after the medical examiner’s office said the rate of virus-related deaths has far exceeded its refrigeration space, according to The Associated Press.
Last month in El Paso, Texas, the city requested four more trailers in addition to the six mobile morgues already there, according to CNN.
And Newsweek said that at one Akron, Ohio, hospital, the healthcare staff purchased a trailer to triple its morgue space.
The news outlet noted the moves come as preparations are being made for a major wave of infections in early 2022 after the expected large gatherings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The moves are also sparked by fears over omicron, the most infectious coronavirus variant yet.
A new study by Imperial College London found the risk of reinfection with the omicron variant is more than five times higher, according to Reuters. The study also showed omicron has shown no sign of being milder than delta.