JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — The morgue at Johnson City Medical Center is now full due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
A Ballad Health spokesperson said the hospital will now start using a refrigerated mobile morgue outside the hospital to hold the bodies. It can hold about 48 to 60 bodies.
It's one of nine mobile morgues across Tennessee that FEMA prepositioned in the event that space would run out shortly after the initial COVID-19 outbreaks in March and April. Johnson City has one of two mobile morgues in East Tennessee -- the other being in Knoxville.
Ballad has requested a second mobile morgue to use at Holston Valley Medical Center.
The Tennessee Department of Health recorded 14 deaths in Northeast Tennessee Thursday, which has surpassed 600 COVID-19 deaths. 100 people are dying of the virus there every 11 to 14 days.
In the Knoxville/East Tennessee region, Regional Hospital ICUs are nearly full with COVID-19 patients as the number of concurrent hospitalizations continue to rise to new highs. As of Thursday, Knox County alone had seen 181 COVID-19 deaths and reported 135 people hospitalized with the virus.