NYC to temporarily freeze bodies of coronavirus victims instead of burying them on Hart Island
New York City will temporarily freeze the bodies of some coronavirus victims instead of burying them on Hart Island to reduce strain on hospitals and funeral homes with dwindling space to preserve the dead during the pandemic.
The city will start transferring bodies from morgues and refrigerated trailers to freezer trucks in the coming days to ensure remains don’t begin to decompose before they can be collected, officials told The Daily News.
Coronavirus victims will still be buried on Hart Island if they cannot be identified or next of kin hasn’t been reached about 15 days after death. Some people who’ve perished from COVID-19 are already interred at the Bronx potter’s field when no one comes forward to collect their bodies.
But the freezer trucks mean the city won’t have to temporarily bury anyone else at the public cemetery on Hart Island so long as their bodies are claimed or family is contacted in about two weeks.
Mayor de Blasio promised mass burials on Hart Island would only occur if the city runs out of room in morgues.
But city officials have repeatedly refused to say how much space morgues, mortuaries, hospitals and refrigerated trucks have for the bodies of coronavirus victims, noting additional capacity can be added at any time and that needs fluctuate.
While the freezer trucks will free up storage for bodies in refrigerated morgues and mortuaries, officials said they’re primarily meant to ensure bodies of coronavirus victims don’t decompose before they are collected. Burying bodies on Hart Island slows decomposition, too.
Freezing bodies will also give families and funeral directors more time to make arrangements, as well as alleviate pressure for staffing and resources like stretchers in hospitals and morgues.
“Our hearts break for families across our city as they make difficult decisions on how best to honor their loved ones," de Blasio spokeswoman Avery Cohen said. "During these painful times, we want to ensure that families can lay their loved ones to rest when they are ready, knowing that we will keep them safe until the time is right.”
Bodies that begin to deteriorate before they are collected and claimed will be moved to freezer-trailer trucks where they can be stored for a year or more, officials said.
The electric-powered freezer trucks will be kept at an existing disaster morgue site set up by the medical examiner’s office in south Brooklyn and guarded by city personnel.
Stressing that needs are constantly changing during the pandemic, officials couldn’t say how many freezer trucks the city has or will require, how much they will cost to purchase or maintain and how many bodies they can hold.
The city will communicate with funeral directors about how long bodies can be stored in morgues before they’re collected or frozen so they can make arrangements with families.
The new policy comes after the coronavirus pandemic upended the city’s typical protocols for handling the dead – with morgues in hospitals and public facilities brimming with bodies and funeral homes struggling to keep up with demand. Bodies that would normally be claimed in days may take weeks to be collected for burial or cremation.
Before the pandemic, any bodies still unclaimed by family or friends within about 15 days of death were sent to the potter’s field at Hart Island for temporary or permanent interment. Some families also choose burial there if they can’t afford other options or they plan to disinter their loved ones later.
The website for the medical examiner’s office initially said this 15-day window was shorted to six days during coronavirus because of an influx of bodies. But officials said this was a mistake, adding to the confusion for grieving families.
Temporarily burying coronavirus victims on Hart Island would’ve been a logistical nightmare with the public cemetery already less than a decade from reaching capacity even before the pandemic began. The island also routinely floods and is hard to access for the medical examiner’s office, funeral homes and the public.
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