Coronavirus: Police find 17 bodies piling up inside New Jersey nursing home morgue

‘They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,’ police chief says

Police in New Jersey found 17 bodies at a nursing home facility after receiving an anonymous tip that a corpse was being kept in a shed near its buildings.

Officials said the bodies were discovered at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Centre I and II in Sussex, Delaware, according to The New York Times.

The nursing home, like many others across the country, has been severely impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Eric C Danielson, the police chief in Andover told the paper.

Officers did not find a body in the shed, but discovered 17 corpses piled up inside a small morgue only meant for four people.

Some 26 of the 68 recent deaths in the facility were said to have tested positive for the disease, however, it was not clear if the 17 bodies in the morgue had died from Covid-19.

Two of those who died were reported to be nurses at the facility.

Some 76 people at the nursing home have reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 including 41 staff members, county health records shared on Wednesday with a federal official.

“The challenge we’re having with all of these nursing homes, is once it spreads, it’s like a wildfire,” Representative Josh Gottheimer told The Times. “It’s very hard to stop it.”

The discovery sparked fear among family members of those still residing at the 700 bed facility.

According to The Times, the home told local health officials they have been separating sick patients on separate wings or floors of the facility.

A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Health told the newspaper it was sending the nursing home a shipment of protective gear to help slow the spread of the disease.

At least 13 of the bodies found on Monday were reportedly moved to a refrigerated truck outside of a hospital in a nearby town, the four other bodies are said to be due to be picked up by a local funeral home.

Staff members who answered the facilities phone lines told The Times they were not authorised to speak to the media.