Califonia funeral homes fill up as COVID-19 rises

LOS ANGELES – As communities across the country feel the pain of an outbreak of coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the Southern California hotspot say they must turn away grieving families because they lack space for the bodies that accumulate.

The head of the state funeral directors association said the mortuaries were inundated as the United States neared a grim toll of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 million people across the country have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years and I never thought in my life that this could happen, that I should say to a family, ‘No we can’t take a member of your family’,” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.

Continental performs an average of 30 bodily abductions per day, six times its normal rate. Mortuary owners call each other to see if anyone can handle the overflow, and the answer is always the same: they’re full too.

In order to deal with the flooding of bodies, Maldonado has rented additional 15-meter refrigerators for two of the four facilities it operates in Los Angeles and surrounding counties. Continental has also delayed pickups at hospitals for a day or two while dealing with residential customers.

Bob Achermann, executive director of the California Funeral Directors Association, said the entire process of burial and cremation of bodies has slowed down, including embalming bodies and obtaining death certificates. During normal hours, cremation can take place in a day or two; now it takes at least a week or more.

Achermann said that in the south of the state, “every funeral home I talk to is like, ‘We’re paddling as fast as we can.’ ‘

“The volume is just amazing and they’re worried that they can’t keep up,” he said. “And the worst of the outbreak could still be ahead of us.”

Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the California crisis, alone has passed 10,000 deaths from COVID-19. Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with basics like oxygen as they treat unprecedented numbers of patients with respiratory problems. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews arrived on Saturday to update the oxygen delivery systems at some hospitals.

Nationwide, just over 2,500 people on average have died from COVID-19 in the past seven days, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The number of new cases reported daily during this period averaged nearly 195,000, a drop from two weeks earlier.

There are fears that the holiday gatherings could cause a further increase in cases.

Arkansas officials reported a record high of more than 4,300 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted that the state is “certainly in the wave after Christmas travel and gatherings” and added: “As we move into this new year, our first resolution should be to follow the guidelines.”

North Carolina officials also reported a record 9,527 confirmed cases on New Year’s Day. That’s over 1,000 cases above the previous daily high.

In Louisiana, a funeral was being held on Saturday for an elected congressman who died of complications from COVID-19. Republican Luke Letlow died Tuesday aged 41. His swearing-in was scheduled for Sunday. He leaves behind his wife, Julia Letlow, and two children aged 1 and 3.

In Texas, state officials say they only have 580 intensive care beds, with staff treating more than 12,480 hospital patients with coronavirus, a number that has steadily increased since September and has reached record levels last week.

In Window Rock, Arizona, the Navajo Nation remained in the middle of a lockdown weekend in an attempt to slow the rate of infection. As of Friday evening, the tribe reported seven more deaths, bringing its total since the start of the pandemic to 23,429 cases and 813 deaths. The reservation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The number of infections is believed to be much higher than what has been reported because many people have not been tested and studies suggest that people can get infected with the virus without feeling bad.

Arizona on Saturday reported 18,943 new cases on Friday and Saturday, a two-day record for the state. He also reported 46 new deaths on Saturday.