Report: Hundreds Of Bodies Of NYC’s Spring Covid Victims Still In Freezer Trucks

Per the report, about 650 bodies are still being stored in freezer trucks at a disaster morgue that was set up on a pier in Sunset Park in April. 

According to New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner, many of the bodies are people who either couldn’t afford a proper burial or whose families couldn’t be located.

The Chief Medical Examiner’s office, which has 15 forensic-investigations staffers tasked with identifying bodies, was unprepared for the demands of the unprecedented and unexpected coronavirus pandemic, The Wall Street Journal found. 

Equipped to handle 20 deaths a day, the number of deaths added to its caseload rose to around 200 per day during the height of New York City’s Covid-19 outbreak.

Due to the delays that resulted, some families found out “weeks or months after the fact that a loved one had died and was awaiting collection,” according to the WSJ. 

Covid-19 also complicated tracking down family members, who the Medical Examiner’s office said on several occasions couldn’t be found because they themselves had also died from the virus.