Paramedics load a patient into an ambulance
TRENTON (New Jersey, US), April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New Jersey police found 17 bodies in one of the state’s largest nursing homes after an anonymous tip said a body was being stored in a shed.
A total of 68 people associated with the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation centres have recently died, with 26 having testing positive for Covid-19.
Police did not find the body in the shed, but said the facility’s tiny morgue was “overwhelmed”.
New Jersey has over 71,000 cases and 3,100 deaths due to the coronavirus.
Over the weekend, the nursing home had requested 25 body bags from authorities. On Monday, police received the anonymous tip about a body being kept in a shed.
Instead, they found the 17 bodies kept in a morgue built to house four.
“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Andover police chief Eric Danielson said.
It is unclear whether any of the 17 deaths were due to the coronavirus.
Seventy-six patients have tested positive for COVID-19 along with 41 staff members between the two buildings, according to a media report.
Thirteen bodies were moved to a refrigerated truck at a neighboring hospital, while the remaining four were to be sent to a funeral home.
The nursing homeowner has since obtained a refrigerated truck for bodies, local media reported.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he was “outraged” that bodies had been allowed to pile up and ordered an investigation.
COVID-19 has killed more than 32,000 people across the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, with New Jersey the worst-hit state after New York.
The outbreak has reportedly claimed thousands of lives in retirement homes, spotlighting how vulnerable the elderly are to the illness. — NNN-AGENCIES
