Via The Guardian: El Paso inmates help move bodies into morgues as Covid deaths soar. Excerpt:
In footage which spread rapidly on social media, nine inmates wearing the striped jumpers of the El Paso county jail helped move bodies into mobile morgues.
“Having to use inmates tells the story of how short-handed we must be,” El Paso county judge Ricardo Samaniego told local media, as he struggled to cope with the rising tide of Covid-19 in the west Texas city on the border with Mexico.
The sheriff’s office said the use of the inmates began on 9 November, on a volunteer basis. El Paso county said the inmates were tested and provided with personal protective equipment by the medical examiner’s office, and would face a two-week quarantine once the program was over. They were being paid $2 an hour.
“It was just a temporary focus, and we’re waiting for the Texas national guard to help us out with that,” said Samaniego, in response to outcry on social media over the use of inmates rather than trained medical professionals.
A spokeswoman for the El Paso county sheriff’s office told the Guardian the inmates’ work would “end when the national guard arrives”. Samaniego, however, wasn’t sure those troops were coming.
“It has not been confirmed that they would be able to take over the demand that we have at this time,” he said.
The El Paso county public health department has confirmed more than 800 deaths since March. Another 400 are under investigation. El Paso has called in more mobile morgues in recent days, up from six to 10.
Authorities in El Paso fear a dire situation could get much worse. Facilities are overwhelmed: 1,100 people are hospitalized with Covid-19.
In an emotional, nearly hour-long video on Facebook, Lawanna Rivers, a nurse who came to Texas to help, described the dire situation.
“The only way that those patients was coming out of that pit was in a body bag,” she said, referring to the the Covid unit where she was woking. “I am not OK from an emotional mental standpoint.”
Rivers claimed intensive care treatment at University medical center (UMC) was not aggressive enough to save lives.
“This hospital’s policy was they only get three rounds of CPR, which was only six minutes, this out of all the codes we had – there is not a single patient that made it,” Rivers said.
El Paso was her fifth assignment during the pandemic. Close to tears, she said working there had left her more “emotionally scarred” than working in New York, which was the world’s worst hotspot for infections in early spring.
In a statement, UMC said: “After watching the video, while we cannot fully verify the events expressed, we empathize and sympathize with the difficult, physical and emotional toll that this pandemic takes on thousands of healthcare workers here and throughout our country.
“This particular travel nurse was at UMC briefly to help El Paso confront the surge of Covid-19 patients.”
Rivers chose to leave her assignment early and return home to her family.
