UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect a statement from Cook County Medical Examiner spokesperson Natalia Derevyanny.
CORRECTION: Derevyanny confirmed in the statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the extra space prepared by Cook County, Illinois, morgues was not directly caused by fentanyl deaths, but by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was previously reported by Fox News.
Morgues in multiple states have resorted to extra storage space prepared during COVID-19 for fentanyl overdose victims after synthetic opioid deaths continued to surge last year, according to Fox News.
Fentanyl overdoses killed over 71,000 people last year following a 1,800% rise in the annual synthetic opioid-related overdose death rate between 2013 and 2020, provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data indicated. Cook County, Illinois, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar told Fox News opioid-related fatalities, most linked to fentanyl, are outpacing every other type of nonnatural death in the area, and its morgues reportedly require additional space prepared at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office opened a surge center and stationed trailers at the morgue when the COVID-19 pandemic began to expand capacity and ensure the County could handle a greater number of decedents with dignity and respect,”Natalia Derevyanny, spokesperson for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The surge center has been decommissioned and one trailer remains at the morgue as a precaution in the event the MEO requires additional space.” (RELATED: ‘A Warning To The Provocateurs’: China Won’t Help US With Drugs, Climate After Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit)
“The Faces of Fentanyl” wall, which displays photos of Americans who died from a fentanyl overdose, at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13, 2022. AGNES BUN/AFP via Getty Images
St. Louis Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Michael Davis recently expressed concern about the area’s rising fentanyl related overdose deaths, according to NBC affiliate KSDK. Some are worried the overdoses might hold a degree of blame for the St. County’s Medical Examiner’s Office body storage overflow options.
The Coroner’s Office of Marion County, Indiana, said drug overdoses were partially responsible for their morgue’s crowding, according to Fox News.
Georgia’s eight-body capacity Muscogee County Morgue was overcrowded last month before the rate of morgue and autopsy results normalized, according to ABC affiliate News Leader 9. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations told the outlet autopsies’ processing times had been lagging partly because of increased opioid overdoses.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office referred the DCNF to a report when asked for comment.
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