Coronavirus outbreak in New York City: Body bags fill hospital hallway

As New York City continues to grapple with its deadly coronavirus outbreak, photos show hospitals struggling to cope, forced to leave bodies in the hallway.

Shocking photos show body bags filling the hallways of a New York City hospital as the city grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

The disturbing images showed several deceased patients in orange body bags on stretchers inside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in the suburb of Bushwick, Reuters reported.

Bodies are seen inside the Wyckoff Hospital amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease. Picture: Reuters

Other photos showed medical personnel wearing full protective gear rolling the corpses from hospital to refrigerator truck, which is serving as a temporary morgue outside of the hospital.

Dozens of body bags were seen in another image loaded on top of one other in the makeshift morgue.

Bodies are moved to a refrigerator truck serving as a temporary morgue outside of Wyckoff Hospital. Picture: Bryan R. Smith/AFP

A body is moved into the truck. Picture: Bryan R. Smith/AFP

New York City’s death toll from coronavirus jumped to more than 2600 over the weekend as the bug spread to over 63,000 people in the five boroughs.

Despite the horrifying scenes, New York reported a slight dip in its coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said it may be a glimmer of hope that the spread is slowing as the state’s death toll climbed to nearly 4200 people.

“We could either be very near the apex, or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on the plateau right now,” Mr Cuomo said.

“You can’t do this day-to-day. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern.”

The state reported 594 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday – a small decrease compared to the 630 new fatalities announced the day before.

ICU admissions and intubations were also down, the governor said, while the discharge rate from hospitals was rising.

Later in the evening, New York City officials also reported a dip in fatalities.

By 5pm Sunday, local time, officials said deaths had risen by 218 since the evening before, to a total of 2472. By comparison, there were 387 new deaths reported in the previous 24 hours and 305 the day before that.

Mr Cuomo sounded cautiously optimistic even as he urged New Yorkers to remain vigilant and continue adhering to the strict social distancing policies in place.

“The coronavirus is truly vicious,” he said.

“It’s an effective killer. People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected.”

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and has been republished here with permission.

Originally published as Coronavirus outbreak in New York City: Body bags fill hospital hallway