Texas National Guard troops arrived Saturday in COVID-19-ravaged El Paso to help handle a backlog of dead bodies, according to a report.
The county medical examiner’s office had 247 bodies at its morgue and inside nine refrigerated trailers as of Thursday, the El Paso Times reported.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management decided Friday it would send 36 guard members to the border county.
“As we’ve seen a rapid increase in cases and hospitalizations, we are unfortunately also seeing a spike in deaths. We have been working closely with funeral homes and mortuaries to assist with increased capacity and coordination of resources,” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo tweeted.
The county had advertised jobs for morgue workers capable of lifting bodies weighing 175 pounds or more, with officials offering more than $27 an hour for work described as not only physically arduous but “emotionally taxing as well.”
The county is also paying jail inmates $2 an hour to help move bodies.
With Post wires
Source: NY Post
