MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. — A refrigerated trailer from the West Virginia
National Guard which is serving as a temporary morgue in Marshall County will
remain on site in Moundsville for the next several days, at least.
A
request for the additional space came this weekend from Marshall County
Emergency Management to address capacity issues due to the number of deaths in
Marshall County and surrounding counties, those attributed to COVID-19 and those
that were not.
“The biggest thing is making sure that everything is taken
care of with as much compassion as possible between the medical examiner and the
funeral homes as well,” said Tom Hart, director of Marshall County Emergency
Management.
Hart said, for many of those who’ve died since Thursday —
nine people with five of the deaths related to COVID — services were being
coordinated through one funeral home with limited repository
capacity.
Additionally, in some cases, funerals were being delayed
because surviving family members had tested positive for COVID-19 or were
potentially exposed and were in quarantine.
On Tuesday, Marshall County
remained red on daily County Alert System Map from the state Department of
Health and Human Resources.
Red has been defined as a county with
“substantial” coronavirus transmission.
The infection rate in Marshall
County was one of the highest anywhere in West Virginia, according to
DHHR.
Even in normal times, Hart said there was not a lot of extra space
available at the Marshall County coroner’s office, funeral homes and area
hospitals.
The trailer to supplement capacity arrived in Moundsville on
Sunday afternoon.
Hart said the hope was that it would not be needed
indefinitely.
“As of right now, there’s really not one thing that you can
pinpoint in regards to what’s causing the spread,” he said.
“We’re still
in the red. Our infection rate’s still really high, so we really need the
residents and businesses to take as many precautions as possible.”