An overall increase in deaths in Maricopa County has created a strain on the larger system which includes hospitals, funeral homes, and the Office of the Medical Examiner (OME). Maricopa County Public Health has been working with these groups to address bottlenecks. This has allowed OME to move decedents out of storage and into funeral homes as intended, Currently, OME is at 63% capacity.
As a precautionary measure, Maricopa County Unified Command has obtained cold storage to handle additional cases, if needed. This would expand OME’s capacity to include an additional 294 decedents by the end of next week. Again, this is only if necessary.
Domino Effect of COVID-19 Cases on Medical System (VIDEO) >
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