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CLEVELAND – The Cuyahoga County medical examiner is preparing a request for refrigerated trucks to deal with an increase in the number of coronavirus-related deaths, County Director Armond Budish said on Friday.
“It was part of our plan to fight the pandemic … if we were to see a certain level of sustained deaths over the course of three days,” Budish said. “It would trigger that response. Of course, neither of us wanted to see that happen. It’s terrible. “
Dr Thomas Gilson, the county medical examiner, said the request was a proactive step as the county has seen a sustained three-day increase in deaths – over 30 a day last week – and although they were not yet at full capacity, they’re gearing up for a potential increase in the Thanksgiving holiday.
Gilson said funeral homes “are reporting that they are busy, but not overwhelmed … and that hospitals have been involved in this storage planning as well. We just want to be prepared. Because, as the director said. executive, we’re not sure what the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday will be. “
Earlier this week, Stark County also received a refrigerated trailer to store additional bodies after its mortuary was filled to capacity over Thanksgiving weekend.
RELATED: Stark County Mortuary Uses Refrigerator Truck for Demand
Cuyahoga County is now on the watchlist for Level 4, the highest in the state health department’s public health advisory system, as it currently meets six of seven indicators of high incidence and spread. of COVID-19. The county has a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 21.4% over the past week.
Cuyahoga County had the 20e the highest frequency of COVID-19 among the counties of Ohio for the period of November 18 to December 1, with 786.4 cases per 100,000 population and 9,712 new cases during this period.
Hospital Region 2, which includes Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties, currently has available capacity of 24.7% for hospital beds and 19.8% for intensive care beds, with 1007 COVID positive patients in hospitals and 253 COVID positive patients in ICU.
Budish said the county was going through a “very dangerous time.”
“And the experts you see here don’t see our numbers improving if we don’t start to really change our behaviors,” he said. “I know it’s difficult. We are in our holiday season. Hope you all had a safe and healthy Thanksgiving. I know it was definitely not a normal vacation. We have been asked to celebrate only with those in our own household in order to bring COVID under control. Unfortunately, this did not happen.
He said the explosion in virus numbers we’ve seen so far does not yet reflect Thanksgiving activities.
“We don’t yet know about the increase in illness and death that will come from other holidays or from people who really don’t like being told what to do,” Budish said. “Let’s be frank: doing what we want is not necessarily doing what is right. We have to look beyond ourselves. And remember, we are all neighbors. We are all members of the same family, the human family.
During the press conference, the depth of the crisis overwhelmed the county’s deputy director of prevention and well-being, Romona Brazile.
CCBH Romona Brazile overwhelmed during COVID-19 press conference
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