As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, state and local officials are making sure they have access to morgue space. Pulaski County Coroner Jon Frain told the county council and commissioners Monday that the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and neighboring counties have asked if they could rent space in Pulaski County’s morgue, if necessary.
“Right now, the situation is everybody’s stretched out, stretched thin, the facilities are stretched out, stretched thin, that everything’s being maintained,” Frain explained. “They’re just preparing for a post-Christmas push or wave of death. Should that come to fruition, they want to know where they can go and what it would be.”
During Monday’s joint session, the commissioners agreed to let the coroner charge the state and other counties $100 per day for the use of morgue facilities. In-county nursing homes and the hospital will still be allowed to use them free of charge.
The pandemic has been keeping the Pulaski County Coroner’s Office busy, and Frain said November was a particularly tough month. “We continue to assist with the nursing homes by providing our services to them, to make sure that the decedents are properly cared for, for the postmortem, and we’ve sadly been very busy,” Frain said. “So the virus has impacted our community in a major way.”
The county’s EMS staff has also been working long hours. EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo told the county council Monday that his department’s two open positions along with a couple of staff COVID-19 cases have resulted in a lot of overtime.
“There was a couple times we had a truck that only had one staff member on it because of the shortage,” DeLorenzo added. “The first responders stepped up, and due to a waiver from the state, we’re allowed to have the first responders drive the truck even though we only have one staff member. And they have stepped up and kept these trucks rolling. And so because of that, we have had no delays, no issues with patients, or anything. It has kept running very smoothly.”
DeLorenzo wants to continue looking at his department’s wages in 2021.
