As cases surge, Thai hospital uses containers to store bodies

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Health care workers move a dead body to a container after a hospital morgue overwhelmed by COVID-19 deaths begun to store bodies in refrigerated containers, as the country struggles to deal with its biggest outbreak to date, in Pathum Thani, Thailand July 31, 2021. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

By Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai hospital morgue overwhelmed by COVID-19 deaths has begun storing bodies in refrigerated containers, resorting to a measure it last took in a devastating 2004 tsunami, as the country grapples with its biggest coronavirus outbreak.

 

Thailand on Saturday reported a daily record of 18,912 new cases and a record of 178 new deaths, bringing total accumulated cases to 597,287 and 4,857 fatalities.

 

At Thammasat University Hospital near the capital Bangkok, a 10-freezer morgue usually handles up to seven autopsies a day. But the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic means it now has to deal with more than 10 bodies daily.

 

"There's not enough space, so we bought two containers for bodies' storage," Pharuhat Tor-udom, a director of the hospital, told Reuters, adding the containers cost about 250,000 baht ($7,601) each.

 

Almost 20% of bodies with an unidentified cause of death later tested positive for COVID-19, overwhelming the morgue and medical staff, he said.

 

"During the tsunami, we used containers to store bodies waiting to be autopsied for identification. But we haven't had to do that (again) until now," Pharuhat said.

 

There were several bodies kept in one container on Saturday, waiting to be retrieved by their relatives, he said.

 

"What makes us feel extremely sad is that we were not able to help people who died because of lacking access to medical treatment," he added.

 

Hospitals in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces are running out of capacity due to the surge in infections.

 

($1 = 32.89 baht)

 

(Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by William Maclean)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-08-01

 

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[sandyf]

Nothing new, repeat of an article for the same thing at the same hospital a couple of weeks ago.

[AndyFoxy]

Par for the course around the world these days.

[metisdead]

An off topic post about Italy has been removed.

[milesinnz]

I don't hear much from those that said Covid was just like a bad case of the flu - what happened to them - or maybe they morphed into the vaccine haters now ?

[hotchilli]

Most hospitals will be struggling to keep up with the rising number of fatalities soon... 

[HappyinNE]

Why do I have to sign in on every page?  Fix the web site!

[oznomad]

46 minutes ago, HappyinNE said:

Why do I have to sign in on every page?  Fix the web site!

Highly likely to be your cookies. If you have no cookie then the site doesnt know you are logged in.

[steven100]

1 hour ago, milesinnz said:

I don't hear much from those that said Covid was just like a bad case of the flu - what happened to them - or maybe they morphed into the vaccine haters now ?

didn't some even say it is all a  mass conspiracy by the governments .....    knuckleheads  !