The funeral home’s “rejection of orders” and the total number of confirmed cases exceeded 1 million for the first time in all counties in the United States.
Los Angeles County, California, which has become the epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, is performing scenes of “human disasters”.
On the 17th, under the pressure of “full of corpses”, Los Angeles County was even forced to temporarily release the limit on the number of cremations.
According to CNN on the 18th, at the request of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department and the Autopsy Department, the South Coast Air Quality Management Area (AQMD) issued an emergency order on the 17th to lift the limit on the number of cremation of corpses at Los Angeles County crematoriums in the next 10 days to ” Respond to emergencies and protect public health.
Crematoriums that meet the conditions only need to send an email application. Depending on actual needs, this emergency order may also be extended appropriately.
The South Coast Air Quality Management Area has previously imposed restrictions on the number of cremation bodies in crematoriums, with the aim of maintaining air quality and protecting public health.
However, in the face of the severe epidemic, local officials obviously can’t take so much care of it.
In an order on the 17th, the district revealed that “the current mortality rate is more than twice that of the previous epidemic, which has overburdened hospitals, funeral homes and crematoriums.” As of January 15, more than 2,700 bodies in Los Angeles County were “stranded” in hospitals and autopsy departments.
On the other hand, the 28 crematoriums in the county have the ability to dispose of more bodies, but the number of cremation regulations limit their disposal.
CNN commented that the lifting of the restrictions on the number of cremation bodies reflects the severity of the Los Angeles County epidemic crisis, but it is only part of a series of disastrous news in Los Angeles County recently.
At present, Los Angeles County, which has deteriorated sharply, has become the “epicenter” of the epidemic in the United States, with more than 200 new deaths in many consecutive days.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases in Los Angeles County reached 1004,693, making it the first county in the United States to exceed 1 million confirmed cases.
The cumulative number of deaths reached 13,757, which is also the highest among counties in the United States. On the 8th of this month, the Los Angeles County Health Agency said that one person in the county died of the novel coronavirus every eight minutes.
At the same time, the emergence of mutant viruses further exacerbates the epidemic prevention pressure in Los Angeles County.
According to the Los Angeles Times on the 17th, Los Angeles County confirmed the first case of the British B117 coronavirus mutant on the 16th, and the man is currently quarantined in Oregon.
California health officials also revealed on the same day that a new strain different from the British mutant virus is appearing more frequently throughout the state. Researchers have already found the virus in more than a dozen counties, including Los Angeles County.
However, the California public health department said it was not clear whether the variant was highly contagious.
The severe outbreak has nearly knocked down Los Angeles County health care facilities. According to CNN on the 15th, the Los Angeles autopsy office has about 900 bodies, while its capacity is generally only 500.
In addition, about 150 bodies will be transported to the office, because the local hospital no longer has enough space. Los Angeles County is expected to deploy 12 trailers and 6 refrigerated containers this week in response to the dilemma of “full of corpses”.
Although the California National Guard also supported Los Angeles County by sending team members to assist the autopsy office in transporting and storing corpses, this is far from enough.
Los Angeles County spokesman Sarah Ardalani said they were working with the California government to get more help.
The severe epidemic situation makes vaccination work more urgent in the local area.
The Los Angeles Times pointed out on the 16th that although California Governor Gavin Newsom announced last week that the state is expanding the range of vaccination personnel to cover all elderly people aged 65 and above, Los Angeles County has not yet completed the vaccination of medical staff.
According to the statistics of Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of the evening of the 18th Beijing time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths of the novel coronavirus in the United States is still the “epicenter” of the world epidemic.
The epidemic prevention is weak in life, and it is rare to recover when you go.
This is the true portrayal of the tragedy of the United States’ anti-epidemic.Click to enter the topic: