‘OUR SCHEDULE IS FULL’

Bodies Stacked to the Ceiling in Florida Funeral Homes as COVID Rages

The state’s latest surge is worse than at the pandemic’s national peak in January.

COVID-19 is overwhelming Florida funeral homes as the state’s system for dealing with death buckles under a new surge in coronavirus cases. Local station WFLA reports that pre-cremation storage areas for bodies at more than a dozen funeral homes across the state are full, with corpses stacked to the ceiling. Multiple funeral homes declined to speak to the news station, citing a recent crush of work. Those that did said their workload is higher than it was when the nation hit its pandemic peak in January. Mike Marchetti, a manager for Newcomer Funeral Homes in Orlando, said, “The family comes in and they say we would like to have the funeral on Friday and we have to tell them ‘I’m sorry we can’t accommodate a funeral on Friday because our schedule is full.’”