ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The morgues for some hospitals are at capacity and additional refrigeration units ordered to handle the overflow are almost full, too, Orange County officials confirmed Thursday at a regular COVID-19 news conference.

Requests for additional units and assets to address the shortage are handled by the emergency management division so neither Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health-Orange, nor Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings had received direct requests, they said. But they confirmed that they had been notified of the need.

“I’m not surprised this is happening,” Pino said. “It has happened in the past.”

Because of the increase in COVID-19 deaths, hospitals must keep bodies of the deceased longer while they await burial or cremation.

In fact, Demings said, “Through our emergency management division, we were notified that even those facilities that offer cremations, that some of them are at capacity and yes, we were made aware that some of our hospitals are at capacity.

"So, in terms of the Orange County medical examiner’s office, I know that not just through the COVID-19 deaths but deaths may be up in general across the county.”

On Sunday, AdventHealth Central Florida confirmed it was using coolers at 10 of its hospital campuses in Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia counties because hospital morgues had reached capacity. 

Officials are working to understand how the county might be able to offer some relief, but that path has not been defined yet, Demings said. Florida has detailed plans for these types of situations, he said.

“There are detailed plans within the State of Florida for these types of situations that may occur. It may require a request to the state for additional refrigeration portable units to be deployed,” Demings said. “We just are doing an assessment at this point to determine how critical that is so we don’t have the final answer for today. But we are working through that.”

A statement Thursday night from the Central Florida division of AdventHealth said, ""We have a robust emergency management program, which has allowed us to continue to care for our community during this surge with thorough planning and precautionary measures. With the spike of seriously ill patients in our hospitals, it's prudent that we prepare for an increase in deaths and are putting resources in place to provide additional capacity if needed."

Pino said COVID deaths in Florida have increased for three months in a row in Orange County. Seventy-three people have died so far in August, up from 58 in July and 31 in June, Pino said.

Orange County leaders say about 95% of deaths are unvaccinated people.

Orange County has had 201,835 COVID cases, and about 20% of the new cases now are from the 5- to 14-year-old age group, Pino said.

Since the start of the pandemic, 1,499 people have died of COVID-19 in Orange County, Pino said.

He indicated that the news is not all bad, however. The county’s 14-day rolling positivity rate has dipped to 19.27%, down from 20.5% on Aug. 19.

An average of more than 4,000 COVID tests are being conducted daily at the county’s three free testing locations, Demings said.