A nurse at New York’s Bellevue Hospital has shared a video of temporary morgues being set up adjacent to the building.

In a post on Instagram, she and two coworkers appear awestruck by the sight of the refrigerated trailers.

“So this is what’s going on in Bellevue. They’re making portable morgues,” she says in the video. “This is my life. This is our life. F***. We don’t want to do this but we have to. We’re in this together.”

She adds: “People stay home! This s*** is se-ri-ous. Se-ri-ous.”

The text that accompanies the post reads: “Getting out of work and this is what I’m greeted with in the back of the hospital. My co-workers @justiiners were in awe we just stood there looking, they’re setting up TEMPORARY MORGUE. Because that’s how bad the situation is and what the expected death rate is going to be!!!”

“So for those of you still thinking it’s not that serious here’s my world, my reality right now. I’ll go into work and walk past these every morning,” she continues.

“Reminds me of 9/11 all over again walking past all the trailers back there with all the body parts and the place smelling like DEATH!! If this won’t make you think twice about staying in then I don’t know what else to say.. #BellevueHospital.”

The refrigerated trailers were set up outside two New York hospitals, Bellevue in Manhattan, and Elmhurst in Queens, as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surged in the city, currently the epicentre of the US outbreak.

The last time New York took such drastic measures was after the 9/11 terror attacks, when the medical examiner’s office had to identify tens of thousands of body parts from those killed in the collapse of the World Trade Centre.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) said in a statement: “We’re in a public health crisis, and the city has declared a state of emergency. As part of that declaration, agencies like OCME have enacted emergency contingency plans to help prepare for every possible outcome.”

The nurse, who goes by the username @ladyangelface on Instagram, has been particularly vocal about the need for people to stay home and practice social distancing, having experienced firsthand the deadly impact of the virus.

A previous post reads: “A few hours drinking and partying isn’t worth your life or that of your loved ones!!! Please I’m begging you be smart not stupid and selfish!!!! I’m on the front line fighting to keep you and your loved ones alive please help us help you STAY HOME!!! Let’s ban together and “Flatten the Curve”. Let’s beat this Virus. Stay safe everyone.”

As of Friday morning, there have been at least 92,743 confirmed cases in New York state, 51,809 of them in New York City. As many as 2,468 people have died in the state, which has the largest number of cases in the US.