As hospitals grapple with too many patients, El Paso's morgue has been unable to keep up with the county's rising death toll. As a result, officials are turning to refrigerated trailers. Ten of these mobile morgues have been requested in recent weeks.
The mobile facilities are set up outside the county's medical examiner's office, which has been handling more than 150 bodies in the last week.
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The city continues to face a shortage of staff, and officials have faced criticism for turning to local prisons for help.
Inmates have been pictured handling the bodies of Covid victims at the medical examiner's office, helping load them into the mobile morgues.
A sheriff's office spokesman said the inmates - who are minor offenders in minimum security prisons - are being compensated $2 (£1.5) an hour. The work is voluntary and they are being provided with protective gear, but the move has still shocked many.
County Judge Samaniego called using inmates a last resort.
"If there's no personnel, no one to help out, and there's volunteers, even if they are inmates, then that's what we're left with," he said, according to KFOX14 News.
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In the last six months, one El Paso woman has lost six of her family members to the virus as the outbreak worsens.
Bonnie Soria Najera told Good Morning America that her uncle was the last to pass away on Sunday. She has also had to bury her parents, two aunts and a cousin.
"They were all being very careful," she said. "They did things that they had to do: grocery stores, went to doctor's appointments."
Ms Najera's mother first tested positive in May. Within three days, her mother was on a ventilator, she said. Her father soon fell ill with the virus too, but ended up at a different hospital.
A week after her mother was admitted, she passed away. An hour later, Ms Najera learned her father was on a ventilator. He would pass away three weeks later.
Ms Najera too, came down with Covid-19, but eventually recovered. As she began feeling better, she learned her cousin and her aunt had both died after contracting the virus. And last week, another aunt also passed away in hospital from Covid-19.
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