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ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images Workers move a body
Alabama is running out of space to contain dead bodies as COVID-19 infections reach the highest levels in the entire pandemic, a state health official said.
With cases surpassing 4,000 a day over the past month, more than even the winter wave before vaccines were readily available, Alabama had to activate two of its four refrigerated trailers to contain bodies for the first time. since the start of the pandemic, state health worker Dr Scott Harris told CNN.
“These are usually organized in the event of an event causing many casualties, for example, when a large number of bodies appear at the same time,” he explained. “This is actually a situation that is happening in hospitals in Alabama right now.”
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“We have enough people dying (…) so that there is no place to put these bodies,” he continued. “We are really in a crisis situation. … I don’t know how much longer we can do this.”
The state is also frequently short of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and on August 18, the Alabama Hospital Association said there were “29” negative intensive care beds left, with over two dozen people on emergency room waiting lists. On average, 3,018 people per day are hospitalized in Alabama with COVID-19 as of August 31, according to The New York Times.
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Alabama records about 32 deaths from COVID-19 per day, a 28% increase in the past 14 days. Harris said they had seen “a double-digit number of deaths” in recent weeks.
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As of August 31, only 38% of Alabama residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Health experts have emphasized that vaccination is the best protection against hospitalization and serious illness. The three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States, from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, prevent hospitalization or death in more than 90% of cases.
Alabama is also seeing a significant increase in pediatric cases of COVID-19, with at least 5,571 children testing positive last week, Harris said. As of Thursday, 45 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 and at least 5 were on ventilators.
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