By LIU YINMENG in Los Angeles | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-01-18 11:17 Share CLOSE
Rob Karlin has been working seven days a week. Whenever he can catch some rest, he does, but the job of handling the delicate details at the end of another person s life has taken a toll on him, both physically and emotionally.
The rising death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in Los Angeles County, the hardest hit region in the US, is overwhelming mortuaries and funeral homes.
In Los Angeles County, the country s most populous county, the number of novel coronavirus cases passed 1 million on Saturday. On Sunday, that number stood at 1,004,322. Someone dies every eight minutes now in LA County from COVID-19, new estimates show.
Mortuaries in Southern California overwhelmed by COVID-19
• 7 min read
Hospitals, morgues and funeral homes overflowing in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles County, California, one person is dying of COVID-19 every eight minutes and Friday marked the county’s deadliest day of the pandemic. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
The number of people dying from COVID-19 in Los Angeles County has skyrocketed, hospitals became overwhelmed and mortuaries have little space for bodies.
When somebody dies in LA County, family members are left calling around trying to find a funeral home that has space and most do not have any.
Funerarias en California, rebasadas ante exceso de muertes por COVID-19 laverdadnoticias.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from laverdadnoticias.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Los Angeles morgues overflow as funeral homes turn away families
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Los Angeles morgues overflow as funeral homes turn away families
By Matthew Ormseth, Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money and Soumya Karlamangla
January 2, 2021 11.30am
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Los Angeles: A monthslong surge of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County is reaching its grim if inevitable zenith as deaths reach once-unthinkable levels, medical infrastructure is buckling under a flood of patients and officials fear the mortality numbers will only worsen in the coming weeks.
The county recorded an average of 151 people dying from COVID-19 each day in the past week - a figure that s almost as high as the average number of people dying daily from every other cause, about 170 a day. But more recently, those numbers have spiked considerably.
A months-long surge of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County is reaching its grim if inevitable zenith as deaths reach once-unthinkable levels, medical infrastructure is buckling under a flood of patients and officials fear the mortality numbers will only worsen in the coming weeks.
The county recorded an average of 151 people dying from COVID-19 each day in the past week a figure that’s almost as high as the average number of people dying daily from every other cause, about 170 a day. But more recently, those numbers have spiked considerably.
Single-day COVID-19 death records have been broken every day for the last three days of the year, with 242 deaths reported Tuesday, 262 on Wednesday and 291 on New Year’s Eve.