El Paso inmates help move bodies at morgues overwhelmed by COVID-19, officials say

Inmates are voluntarily helping to move bodies at El Paso morgues, which have been overrun with bodies due to the coronavirus pandemic, officials say.

A spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said inmates on work release at the county jail have been helping move bodies on a voluntary bases since Monday, KFOX reported. They’re paid $2 an hour and are supervised by a deputy and two detention officers, according to the outlet.

The inmates — known as trustee inmates — wear personal protective equipment during their shifts, officials told KVIA. They are described as being incarcerated for low-level misdemeanors .

Between four and eight inmates helped each day last week, working 8-hour shifts, according to the outlet. The medical examiner’s office recently contacted the detention facility for help as it waits for aid from the Texas National Guard, KVIA reported.

El Paso morgues have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office described the morgues as “overwhelmed just as much as the hospitals,” KFOX reported.

“Having to use inmates tells the story of how short-handed we must be,” El Paso County Judge, Ricardo Samaniego, told the outlet. On Saturday, 145 bodies were awaiting examination in county morgues, KVIA reported.

The county has 10 mobile morgues set up at the medical examiner’s office to deal with the overflow of bodies, according to KTSM.

Funeral homes are also looking into options for more refrigerated space, the Texas Tribune reported.

Earlier this month, hospitals were so overrun with COVID-19 patients, that the Department of Defense sent medical teams to the county to help, according to the outlet.

As of Saturday, 1,091 people in El Paso County were hospitalized due to the coronavirus, according to county data. About 200 people are on ventilators.

El Paso County has 31,896 active cases of COVID-19 and has logged more than 72,000 cases since the onset of the pandemic, according to county data from Saturday. About 750 people have died.

El Paso is in far West Texas, across the Rio Grande from Mexico. The population estimate for El Paso County in 2019 was over 839,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.

In late October, Samaniego ordered all “non-essential” businesses to shut down for two weeks in an effort to curb infection rates, McClatchy News previously reported.

As COVID-19 deaths mount, El Paso adds mobile morgues, Texas officials say

“Our hospitals are at capacity and our medical professionals are overwhelmed,” Samaniego said. “If we don’t respond we will see unprecedented levels of death.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit with businesses a day later, calling the shutdown unlawful and inconsistent with Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders.

The Eight Court of Appeals in El Paso ruled against the order, instructing the district judge who upheld the order to reverse the shutdown, according to the Associated Press.

Texas became the first state to reach 1 million cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 12:49 PM with the headline "El Paso inmates help move bodies at morgues overwhelmed by COVID-19, officials say."