Overwhelmed undertakers stored 50 rotting coronavirus corpses in unrefrigerated trucks

Police made the grim discovery after local residents complained about the smell

A funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus outbreak stored 50 decomposing corpses in unrefrigerated trucks until neighbors complained about the smell. Police called to the Andrew T Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn on Wednesday found the facility had hired four U-Haul trucks to store the bodies, with New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio blasting the ‘unconscionable’ treatment of the remains.

DeBlasio said: ‘I have no idea in the world how any funeral home could let this happen.’ New York Police Department issued the home with a citation after the grim discovery. It prompted bosses to hire a refrigerated truck to store the human remains properly, with workers in hazmat suits seen transporting the corpses into that container throughout Wednesday afternoon.

New York is the world’s global Covid-19 hotspot, with more than 304,000 diagnoses and over 18,300 deaths across the entire state. New York City’s five boroughs have seen over 167,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and close to 13,000 deaths. The onslaught of bodies has left funeral homes across the city struggling to cope.

New York’s hospitals have drafted in their own refrigerated trucks to act as mobile morgues, with many bodies buried on the city’s desolate Hart Island. City officials say those burials are intended to be permanent, although remains which go unclaimed will stay in the Hart Island mass graves.

A total of 306 people died across the state New York over the last 24 hours, with the daily fatality rate dropping from a high of almost 800 deaths a day seen earlier this month.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has warned draconian social-distancing measures must continue, including limiting funeral gatherings to just 10 people, with many mourners forced to ‘attend’ services for dead loved ones via video link.