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Pentagon on the hunt for 100,000 body bags as experts predict coronavirus may claim over 200,000 lives

Hospitals and morgues were struggling to cope with the soaring number of deaths in the county which now houses over 216,000 confirmed cases
UPDATED APR 2, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The Pentagon was seen preparing for the worst by seeking to provide 100,000 body bags for potential civilian use as experts predicted the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will end up claiming more than 200,000 lives in the country. The US now has over 216,000 confirmed cases while its death toll has crossed 5,000. Worldwide, nearly a million people have been hit. A new report has also suggested that the Donald Trump administration was cautioned about the virus three years ago but yet it failed to respond. 

Things were turning difficult as hospitals and morgues were getting overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and victims’ bodies, respectively, and space crunch was being witnessed in states like New York and California. In New York City that has seen over 1,300 dead, hospitals were found using bedsheets to wrap corpses because of a shortage of body bags. The New York Police Department has also thought of making special teams to collect bodies from around the city. 

President Trump, who in recent weeks was hopeful of reopening the country fearing a massive economic and psychological breakdown, went several steps back soon after to warn his fellow countrymen to prepare themselves for a “hell of a bad two weeks” ahead as the White House projected the death toll reaching somewhere between 100,000 and 240,000 even if the country continued to observe its current social distancing measures. The situation is becoming so tense that Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top medical expert and a key member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, is reportedly facing threats for promoting social distancing measures since the advice has not gone down well with fervent right-wing camps. 

While President Donald Trump has been saying repeatedly that the coronavirus pandemic was "unforeseen",  it has been revealed recently that the Pentagon had warned his incoming administration way back in January 2017 of not just the impending crisis but even the shortages in medical gear that was about to happen (Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not have a specific delivery date for the army-style remains pouches, Bloomberg cited sources as saying. The green nylon bags, called the Human Remains Pouches, were sought by the FEMA through an interagency body which directed it to the defense department. The Pentagon is currently looking into buying more bags and will draw some from a stockpile of 50,000 initially, Bloomberg cited two persons who have updates about the request. 

The body bags are usually distributed to war zones and can be 94 inches long and 38 inches wide. 

On Monday, March 30, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Major General Jeff Taliaferro, told the media they are in a close partnership with FEMA to identify the needs. He said the day’s "mission assignments" included requests for prepackaged MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and "other supplies" as well as "a mission assignment from the FEMA for a mortuary affairs support team for New York." Taliaferro said the process to identify the personnel is underway.

The FEMA is working with both state and regional health emergency managers for the distribution of the pouches wherever required. 

Trump was warned in early 2017

A new report has said that Trump was warned about the devastating effects the coronavirus could produce, on January 6, 2017. It was still two weeks before he took oath as the 45th president of the US. 

“The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease,” the USNORTHCOM Branch Plan 3560: Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease Response, said. “Coronavirus infections [are] common around the world”.

The Pentagon document containing 103 pages leaned on findings from the 2012’s Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) — a type of coronavirus. The Nation, which obtained the document, said the Pentagon warned the White House about the shortage of ventilators, masks and other necessities in 2017 but the Trump administration cared little. 

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