Two Oregon counties have requested refrigerated trucks to store bodies amid an increase in coronavirus deaths.
Tillamook County and Josephine County submitted applications for the trucks earlier this week according to the application forms provided at The Hill. A truck for Tillamook arrived Friday and officials are working to raise resources for Josephine County.
The Associated Press first reported on the news of Oregon County’s additional storage.
In her application form, Josephine County Emergency Manager Emily Ring said the county hospital “exceeded the daily storage capacity for corpses and that the five funeral homes and 3 crematoria were they describe themselves not yet in crisis, but that they are on the brink of crisis capacity on a daily basis ”.
Gordon McCraw, emergency manager for Tillamook County, told officials in his request that his only county funeral home “is now constant or exceeds its capacity of 9”. McCraw noted that motor vehicle crashes and suicides had also contributed to a recent increase in fatalities in the county.
According to state data, 70% of the Tillamook population aged 18 and over is vaccinated, while 53% of the Josephine. Fifty-nine percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the state saw 2,046 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. In comparison, the cases were double-digit and hundreds low in June and July.
Earlier this month, Oregon implemented an internal mask warrant regardless of vaccination status amid a growing number of cases. Later, the state announced an outside mask mandate: the first state to do so.