6 APRIL 9, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
The horrors of coronavirus on display
Healthcare workers wheel the body of deceased person from Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on April 2. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center,
on the Ridgewood/Bushwick
border in Brooklyn, registered
the fi rst coronavirus-related death
in New York City back on March 14.
Since that time, more than 2,200 New
Yorkers — most of them senior citizens
aged 65 and older — have perished
from the illness as the pandemic spread
throughout the city.
Wyckoff Heights and other hospitals
across the city have become overwhelmed
with critically ill coronavirus
patients fi lling intensive care wards and,
at this point, any other available space
in each medical center.
As the losses from coronavirus cases
mounted, the city dispatched empty refrigerated
trailers to hospitals across
the fi ve boroughs. These trailers have
become a public reminder of the grim
reality New York City faces; the death
toll from coronavirus is so great that
the trailers must serve as temporary
morgues because the hospital morgues
are at their capacity.
For days, the makeshift morgue for
Wyckoff Heights has been parked along
Stanhope Street — and residents have
witnessed the tragic sight of medical
workers, clad in protective gear, wheeling
the bodies of coronavirus victims
up a wooden ramp and into the trailer.
Reuters obtained images of the
horrifi c scene.
Bodies are seen outside the Wyckoff Hospital on April 4. Handout/via REUTERS
/WWW.QNS.COM
