Funeral homes and crematories in Florida are getting piled up with bodies as the state deals with the worst surge of Covid-19 cases. The southeastern state is going through a critical time in the pandemic. An average of 25,000 cases and nearly 230 deaths are reported in the state every day.
With a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Florida, the staff members of several funeral homes and crematories are working round the clock to honor the dead, WFLA reported. The report stated the staff is overwhelmed by the remains of the people that are piling up inside the funeral homes as they are stacked towards the ceiling.
The funeral directors said the current situation is worse than the first wave. At times, they are forced to delay their meetings with the families and delay funerals due to the limitations in the number of staff members available for work, Mike Marchetti, are a manager of Newcomer Funeral Homes, said.
"So, the family comes in, and they say we would like to have the funeral on Friday, and we have to tell them, 'I am sorry we cannot accommodate a funeral on Friday because our schedule is full," Marchetti added.
The report also stated that a total of 20 funeral homes, and crematories were contacted for the interview, and many of them were too busy to corporate with the publications. A few funeral home directors were not even able to talk on the phone, and one such funeral director shared his experience with them. He said that four new cases came in while he was talking to his partner for 30 minutes.
The covid-19 surge in Florida
Florida currently tops the list of states with an increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the United States, according to Vox. The test positivity rate in the state is 20 percent with over 17,000 people are hospitalized after contracting the virus, and there is a shortage in the number of ICU beds and ventilators in the state.
Florida did not even have 10 percent of ICU beds available for the Covid-19 patients. So, the health department urged the federal government to send more ventilators to the hospitals, the report stated. The Orlando city officials also urged the residents to limit their use of water because the same liquid oxygen is used to treat Covid-19 patients.
"Several hospitals have had to procure and request more ventilators and oxygen deliveries continue to be a challenge," Savannah Kelly, a spokesperson of the Federal Housing Administration, said.
Meanwhile, Joshua Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the lack of state policies contributes to a surge in Covid-19 cases in Florida.
"There are still a large absolute number of unvaccinated people, relatively few people practicing social distancing or masking, by choice and also due to the absence of policies requiring them. Schools and universities going back into session, and lots of delta introductions in the state all happening at the same time," Michaud said.
