Tarrant County morgue brings in refrigerated trucks to store more bodies during COVID-19 surge

FORT WORTH, Texas - Tarrant County is preparing for an increase in COVID-19 deaths. There are now overflow refrigeration units outside the morgue.

It’s a sobering development in the rapid COVID-19 surge.

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley says conversations about bringing refrigerator trucks outside the medical examiner’s office have been going on for months. He says it’s been a long time since this has happened, but he points to the times we’re living in.

Tarrant County reported 15 deaths on Wednesday, the highest number since August. It also reported 13 deaths on Tuesday.

The body count at the medical examiner’s office is not only related to COVID-19, but Judge Whitley says it does make up a part of it. He also says some families are slowing down the process of having a body transferred from the ME’s office to a funeral home because they’re waiting to make funeral arrangements in hopes that pandemic conditions will become safer.

Other regions across Texas have taken similar actions.

In El Paso, morgue trucks were brought in at the beginning of November, and the National Guard was deployed to help the medical examiner’s office there process bodies.

It’s unclear at this time though how many of the refrigerated trucks have been installed in Tarrant County or how many bodies they will be able to hold.

Judge Whitley says he’s had recent conversations with the medical examiner.

“I don’t know that they’re going to be used immediately,” the judge said. “But I think he feels like it’s better now to have them here in case they are needed as opposed to not having them here when they are needed.”

FOX 4 reached out to the medical examiner, but we were told they were too busy.

Tarrant County hospitals are hosting a combined 890 COVID-19 patients right now. That’s 22% of its capacity.