Germany and Italy have reportedly begun using shipping containers to store coronavirus victims at hospitals and cemeteries.
Both Germany and Italy have some of Europe’s highest death tolls from COVID-19, according to The Independent, which reported on the storage methods.
Germany and Italy storing Covid victims in shipping containers https://t.co/Bk2c9oziok
— The Independent (@Independent) December 18, 2020
Italy reportedly has the highest confirmed COVID-19 death toll in all of Europe as of Wednesday.
“We’ve arranged a temporary container to front a moment of enormous emergency,” a spokesperson for the Mater Salutis Hospital of Legnago, Italy, reportedly said. (RELATED: FDA Releases Guidelines On How To Convert Trucks Carrying Dead Human Remains To Trucks Carrying Food)
The spokesperson went on to say that the hospital did not use the container in the first wave, but began using it earlier in the week after the morgue at the hospital filled up.
Other areas of Italy are using churches to store victims of COVID-19, The Independent reported.
“If a person passes away and there is no space in the clinic then they come here and stay for a short while until the deceased is taken to a final resting place, for example here in the cemetery,” said Head of Cemeteries and Crematoriums in Hanau, Germany, Alexandra Kinski, according to The Independent.
Germany reportedly had a low infection rate this summer, but an increase in cases has led to an increase in government regulation since Nov. 2.