Officials in the US state of Maryland made the painful but right decision to use an ice rink in the city of Laurel as a temporary morgue after the Anatomy Board in Baltimore ran out of room, member of the Maryland House of Delegates Mary Lehman told Sputnik on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th May, 2020) Officials in the US state of Maryland made the painful but right decision to use an ice rink in the city of Laurel as a temporary morgue after the Anatomy board in Baltimore ran out of room, member of the Maryland House of Delegates Mary Lehman told Sputnik on Wednesday.The community ice rink, located just on the outskirts of the the nation's capital of Washington, is temporarily housing bodies amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"These bodies have been transported there because after 72 hours of being in a hospital morgue or at the medical examiner's office, no one came to get them (to a funeral home or crematorium), and there was no more room at the other place that unclaimed bodies normally go, which is the state's Anatomy Board in Baltimore," said Lehman, who represents Laurel and Prince George's County.
The delegate considers the decision "a necessary response to a very unfortunate situation."
"I think having bodies at the ice rink is more dignified and appropriate than having them in refrigerated trucks," she added.
Lehman does not know how many bodies are being stored at the ice rink now, but clarified that these people have died both of COVID-19 and other causes.
"The reason for running out of room is because of so many people dying of the coronavirus - in addition to people dying of all other reasons," she said.
Maryland has documented more than 27,000 COVID-19 cases and almost 1,300 related deaths. Prince George's County, in the suburbs of Washington, is the most affected part of the state: 7,831 of its residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.
