LA County scrambles to find more space to store bodies of Covid-19 victims

By Joe Kelley

January 15, 2021 at 7:02 am EST

LA County Los Angeles County called upon the National Guard to assist with processing Covid-19 deaths and placing them into temporary storage at Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office. The temporary storage will relieve pressure from overwhelmed hospitals and mortuaries who can???t accommodate the deceased.

By Joe Kelley

January 15, 2021 at 7:02 am EST

Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in California, is running out of space to store the bodies of Covid-19 victims and officials are scrambling to secure additional capacity.

About 900 bodies are currently being held at the Los Angeles Medical Examiner Coroner’s Office, which usually has a capacity of 500, according to spokeswoman Sarah Ardalani. She estimates that about 150 of the bodies are overflow from local hospitals that have run out of room.

Since the initial Covid-19 surge last spring, a dozen refrigerated storage units have been on site at the downtown location. A dozen more trailers will be in place by next week, along with six refrigerated containers, Ardalani told CNN.