Crematoriums
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The Los Angeles County Air pollution control officials said on Sunday that it will lift the cremation limit due to the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths.

Los Angeles is the first county in the U.S. that reached more than one million COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began. This also means swelling numbers of hospitalizations and deaths that drained not only the hospitals but also the morgues and funeral homes.

According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, Los Angeles County has recorded 1,024,190 COVID-19 infections and with a death toll of 13, 936.

Los Angeles County has the highest number of infections in the country and with the biggest number of deaths in the state of California.

Los Angeles County Lifts Cremation Limit

Breitbart reported that Air Control Pollution officials in Los Angeles County announced Sunday that it lifts cremation limit due to the increasing number of deaths that funeral homes and morgues can no longer cater anymore.

South Coast Air Quality Management District said in a statement through KRON4, "The current rate of death is more than double that of pre-pandemic years, leading to hospitals, funeral homes, and crematoriums exceeding capacity without the ability to process the backlog of cases."

According to the report, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued the emergency order on Sunday. The executive order lifts the limitations on crematoriums for at least the next 10 days to help the already congested and mortuaries and hospital morgues.

Additionally, the air pollution control agency typically restricts the number of bodies to be cremated allowed every month to protect the air quality in the area.

However, the agency needs to lift its restriction because the capacities of morgues have already exceeded.

Los Angeles Continues to Suffer the Impact of COVID-19

For several consecutive days, Los Angeles County continues to suffer the impact of COVID-19. Aside from reaching more than one million cases on Saturday, it has also recorded more than 200 deaths for several days which makes Los Angeles with the highest number of deaths in California.

L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a statement, "Our community is bearing the brunt of the winter surge, experiencing huge numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, five-times what we experienced over the summer."

The situation in Los Angeles County is almost similar to the state of affairs in Bergamo, Italy last year, a city just northeast of Milan located in Italy's Lombardy region, which became the epicenter of the nation's and Europe's COVID-19 crisis.

It can be remembered that Giorgio Gori, the mayor of Bergamo, said that the city's crematories can no longer dispose of all the work it has to do because there were so many bodies of those who have died due to the virus. Gori said that the crematory is no longer enough.

This is the reason why Los Angeles County Officials are asking for the fast rollout and vaccination because this will help reduce infections and deaths.