Fitchburg State University’s Landry Arena is being set up as a mortuary for coronavirus in case it’s needed to give extra capacity to hospitals and funeral homes.
The cautionary step of opening the temporary mortuary is meant to allow existing mortuary services to continue operating normally, the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Wednesday.
“While OCME currently has sufficient capacity for its needs, our contingency plans include supporting the continued operation of mortuary services by providing increased short-term capacity for cities, towns, and medical facilities if necessary,” Jake Wark, the office’s spokesman, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Mayor (Stephen) DiNatale and Fitchburg State University for making this space available to ensure that mortuary services are uninterrupted and remain safe for the community and sensitive to families.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said temporary morgues are recommended in guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Massachusetts had a reported 122 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the state Department of Public Health, with nine confirmed in Worcester County.
Massachusetts cases are projected to peak sometime between April 7 and April 17, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The institute forecasts deaths to peak April 15 with somewhere between 42 to 86 deaths a day.
The state is projected to have roughly 1,500 deaths by early August, according to the institute.
Fitchburg State referred requests for comment to the state office.
