As the mortuary has reached capacity, hospitals in central Florida have been forced to order mobile mortuary to help deal with the excessive number of COVID-19 deaths.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Advent Health had to order 14 portable morgues for the first time to help make room for an additional 168 corpses.
In an email sent to emergency managers in Florida, the hospital system announced that it “has started operating at our 10 campuses in Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Volusia counties. Use rented refrigerated coolers. These coolers are also filled up quickly.”
Advent Health stated that it believes that its morgue has been supported due to “the slowdown in local funeral homes,” which has caused the hospital to have to store the bodies for longer periods of time.
The email read: “As this is happening in hospitals throughout the region, we have been in contact with our regional hospital disaster alliance, and requests for assistance have also been forwarded to the Florida Hospital Association.”
In the early days of the pandemic, the hospital requested assets such as the Florida Emergency Mortuary Operations Response System, but these resources were no longer available because there was no disaster statement in place.
Chandan Khanna / AFP
Advent Health stated that it will not ask the state government to provide any assets, but hopes to alert local officials about the capacity of the morgue so that they can report the problem to their superiors. “If you hear this information, it’s not surprising [others].”
In the statement sent to Weekly newspaper, The central Florida section of the hospital system stated that it is ordering portable morgues so that staff can be well-equipped in the coming weeks-especially because of the increased likelihood of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths that have overwhelmed Florida. Will get worse.
Advent Health said: “We have a strong emergency management plan, which allows us to continue to care for our community during this surge through comprehensive planning and preventive measures.” Prepare for the increase in death toll and invest resources when necessary to provide additional capacity.”
On Thursday, Florida reported the largest single-day increase in the total number of deaths since the pandemic began, at 901. The state reports an average of 227 COVID-19 deaths every day.
Statewide, more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients occupy intensive care unit beds—the second highest in the country.
The Delta variant of the virus has exacerbated the increase in hospitalizations and deaths, and has also led to a shift in the infected population.
Doctors across the United States report that they are seeing more and more young people in hospitals, and Florida has the largest number of pediatric cases.
