New York City still uses refrigerated trucks to store the bodies of coronavirus victims, more than a year after they were first established as temporary morgues as deaths soared at the height of the pandemic.
The city's medical examiner's office said
750 bodies are being stored in refrigerated trailers at a Brooklyn pier
as family members work out plans to find a place for them.
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Dina Maniotis, deputy commissioner of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told a city council committee on Wednesday that many of the bodies held at 39th Street Pier could end up buried in the city's potters field on Hart Island. .
In April 2020, the city shortened the amount of time it would hold the unclaimed remains to 14 days before burying them on Hart Island.
At the time, according to officials, they were exploring the option of temporarily burying the unclaimed remains on the island so they could be moved later.
The Statue of Liberty is seen behind refrigerated trucks destined to store bodies on the 39th Street Pier in New York's Brooklyn borough on May 6, 2020.AP Photo / Ted Shaffrey
Mark Desire, a spokesman for the medical examiner's office, said permanent burial on Hart Island is an option for the closest family members of COVID-19 victims whose bodies remain in refrigerated trucks.
"Long-term storage was created at the height of the pandemic to ensure that families could put their loved ones to rest as they see fit," Desire explained.
"With sensitivity and compassion, we continue to work with each family, case by case, during their period of grief," he added.
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Local outlet The City reported on the matter this week.
The page noted that between 500 and approximately 800 bodies have been kept in cold storage since any given time in April 2020.
Those figures were based on estimates from the coroner's office compiled by the website and the Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting at Columbia University.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatched 85 refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues last year when deaths from COVID-19 collapsed the city's permanent morgues and storage spaces at many hospitals.
Many were stationed next to health centers and workers in protective gear used forklifts to place the bodies in what became a grim daily ritual.
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The state of New York has more than two million infections and more than 53,700 deaths from COVID-19
, according to data from NBC News, the sister network of Telemundo Noticias.
In the worst moments of the crisis, in April 2020, around 1,000 deaths per day from the disease were registered in the Big Apple, which has just under nine million inhabitants.
With information from EFE and AP.