DSHS Requests Five Mortuary Trailers to Set Up in Bexar County

The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has requested five mortuary trailers to set up in Bexar County as a precaution during the COVID-19 surge. Authorities with the state health department submitted the request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency just as new fatalities in Bexar County began to increase.

The Metropolitan Health District in San Antonio confirmed 3,679 deaths as of Monday evening. Six new deaths were reported Monday and 38 deaths were reported in the last seven days.

Another grim factor: hospitalization rates have increased in recent weeks, largely fueled by the more contagious Delta variant. About 90 percent of those hospitalizations involve unvaccinated patients, according to local officials.

Local officials reported 1,413 hospitalizations on Monday, an increase from 1,299 reported a week ago. Of those hospitalized, 367 are in the ICU and 238 are on ventilators. Only 8 percent of staffed hospital beds are available.

The five trailers would be staged in San Antonio to meet any demands across the state. No local jurisdictions have requested the trailers at this point.

“FEMA previously provided this resource for earlier increases in COVID-19 fatalities and has indicated they will be delivered in the next week to two weeks,” according to DSHS. “We don’t know of any place that needs these now due to COVID, but part of a response is being prepared for what could happen. Knowing that it takes a few weeks for these to arrive, we wanted to go ahead and put the request in.”

Less than two months ago, there were fewer than 10 deaths in a week. But the number of COVID-19 deaths in Bexar County has climbed since the beginning of August.

Data from the Texas Health and Human Services shows that Bexar County has the second-highest number of active cases among Texas counties with more than 22,100 cases. Harris County has the most active cases at more than 37,300, data shows.