In the parking lot of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, refrigerated trucks are being used as makeshift morgues.

COVID-19 has claimed so many lives, New Jersey is running out of space to store bodies.

The virus has not only stretched hospitals beyond their limits. Mortuaries are also finding themselves overtaxed and pressed for space.

“The refrigerated trucks are for storage of the deceased,” a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health said in an email. “The deceased are being stored to relieve the pressure on mortuary facilities.”

It’s a jarring sight — refrigerated trucks lined up next to one another almost industrially in a parking lot, near a khaki tent and law enforcement vehicles.

An official from the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner (OCSME), right, speaks with another person. The state delivered refrigerated trucks to the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School parking lot in Newark to use as a temporary morgue there. Monday, Apr. 13, 2020.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Many images of refrigerated trucks repurposed to store the deceased have been reported over the past several weeks, especially in New York City, where mortuary space was also desperately needed.

Despite signs that infection rates are beginning to slow, deaths from COVID-19 continue to mount at a staggering rate.

There are at least 64,584 cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey and 2,443 deaths as of Monday, when 3,219 new cases were announced.

During his Monday media briefing, Gov. Phil Murphy put the death toll from the virus in sobering perspective.

“That is more than the number of New Jersey residents who gave their lives in the Korean and Vietnam wars," Murphy said.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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