Stark image of empty mobile morgue brings home COVID warning at Tennessee hospital
Four rows of white shelves line a container truck outside Johnson City Medical Center in eastern Tennessee. Sheets of plywood rest between them on the floor.
The photograph, shared Thursday on Twitter, is a warning of sorts.
“Protect yourself, your loved ones and front-line health care workers,” Ballad Health said in a caption accompanying the photograph.
The truck is a refrigerated mobile morgue provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It’s overflow, given that the morgue at the Johnson City hospital is full — again.
“We don’t want to see this truck filled,” Ballad Health said.
The stark warning comes as the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surges across the country. In Tennessee, state health officials reported more than 6,000 new cases on Thursday. There were more than 8,000 the day before.
At least 2,500 people were hospitalized Wednesday with COVID-19 statewide — more than 600 of which were in the intensive care unit, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
Neighboring North Carolina is no better. More than 5,500 new coronavirus cases were added Thursday and at least 2,444 patients were hospitalized, The News & Observer reported.
“We are on a dangerous course,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. “Hospitals are feeling the strain, and this is really worrisome.”
Ballad Health operates across 29 counties in four states — northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia, northwest North Carolina and southeast Kentucky. Johnson City Medical Center is one of more than a dozen hospitals under its name.
It’s one of five Level 1 Trauma Centers in Tennessee, meaning the hospital has comprehensive care “providing total care for every aspect of injury,” according to the American Trauma Society. It has 445 beds, 43 of which are in the ICU, according to Ballad Health.
Shortly before posting its warning Thursday, the health care company shared a snapshot of COVID-19 metrics pertaining to the 21 counties in Tennessee it services.
Citing state-reported data, Ballad Health said there were 95 coronavirus-related deaths in those counties in the last week. The percent positive rate, meanwhile, has lingered around 26.5%. According to its own data, at least 306 people are hospitalized with the virus — 69 of which are in the ICU.
At least 35 were on a ventilator, Ballad Health said.
The health care company didn’t say how many patients have died in the hospital or how much space Johnson City Medical Center has in its morgue — only that it was full on Thursday, and not for the first time.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Stark image of empty mobile morgue brings home COVID warning at Tennessee hospital."
