Videos show bodies being loaded into morgue trucks in New York where the coronavirus death toll is now nearly 1,000. (Picture: Twitter/AP)

Video footage shows bodies being loaded into refrigerated trucks in New York as the coronavirus death toll nears 1,000 in the country’s Covid-19 epicenter.

The clip posted to Youtube shows medical staff using a forklift to load the bodies into the makeshift morgue truck outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene, according to the man filming the video who did not identify himself.

As the man shoots the surreal footage, he is heard saying, ‘This is for real. This is Brooklyn. They putting the bodies in the 18-wheeler…this is no joke…this is Brooklyn Hospital…This may make you want to take this serious.’



As of Monday morning, New York has had just under 60,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and at least 965 deaths related to the outbreak, which has completely overrun hospitals and emergency services around the city.


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New York City set up a makeshift field hospital in Central Park over the weekend as healthcare workers scramble to prepare for the surging pandemic, which killed nearly 100 people in the city in a seven-hour span.

In preparation for an increase in coronavirus-related deaths, the city has set up makeshift morgues, including the one seen in the video and another outside of Bellvue Hospital in Manhattan.

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Two refrigerated trailers with ‘MOBILE COMMAND CENTER – MEDICAL EXAMINER’ written on their sides were also seen last week at the corner of 30th Street and FDR Drive.

Late last week New York City asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help storing bodies because the city only has enough capacity for 900 bodies to be stored across the whole city. The city’s death toll is now nearing its morgue capacity.

Bodies of coronavirus victims line the back of a truck in New York

The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort docked in New York today to help deal with the huge numbers of sick people in the city (Picture: AP)

On Sunday, Dr Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force, said the country could see up to 200,000 people die from Covid-19 during an interview with CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

A 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship docked in Manhattan on Monday and a field hospital was going up in Central Park for coronavirus patients, as officials in New York City, the epicenter of a widening U.S. outbreak, pleaded for more help from Washington.

In an image that captured the hopeful spirit of the national mobilization against the outbreak, the USNS Comfort steamed into New York Harbor, accompanied by a flotilla of support ships and helicopters hovering ahead.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a prominent public figure in the battle to stop the virus, waited at a Midtown Manhattan pier when the converted oil tanker, painted white and adorned with giant red crosses, arrived at about 11 a.m. EDT.

Makeshift morgue trailers sits alongside Bellevue Hospital Center on March 29, 2020 in New York City. New York City. (Picture: Getty Images)

The Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients, including those who require surgery and critical care, the Navy said.



Hospitals in New York City have been overrun with patients suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. New York state accounts for almost half of the country’s 141,883 cases and more than a third of its 2,477 deaths, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has the most cases in the world.

Construction of a 68-bed field hospital began on Sunday in Central Park, and the new site was expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

Workers move corpses into a refrigeration truck outside Mount Sinai Hospital in the Queens borough of New York City (Picture: Getty Images)

Health workers have begun constructing a makeshift field hospital in Central Park. (Picture: MEGA)

The makeshift facility, provided by Mount Sinai Health Systems and non-profit organization Samaritan’s Purse, will not take walk-ins, and admissions and transfers will be managed by Mount Sinai, de Blasio said.

De Blasio, among a growing chorus of officials who have voiced frustration at the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis, said the death toll in the city would rise soon if Washington did not provide more medical supplies and assistance.

‘If we don’t get more consistent federal help in a growing crisis, there’s a danger we start to lose lives that could have been saved,’ the New York City mayor said in an interview with CNN. ‘Sunday is D-Day, we need help by Sunday.’

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