Shocking video shows the bodies of NYC coronavirus victims being forklifted into a refrigerated truck used as a temporary morgue

Facebook/YouTube

Left: Screenshot from a video taken Sunday of a forklift being used to transfer the bodies of coronavirus victims into the back of a refrigerated truck outside Brooklyn Hospital Center. Right: Another video, taken outside another Brooklyn hospital, showing bodies wait on gurneys outside to be put into a similar truck.

• Warning: This post contains video that some people may find distressing to watch.
• A Brooklyn, New York, resident recorded the moment a forklift transferred the bodies of people who had died of the coronavirus into a refrigerated truck, which was being used as a temporary morgue on Sunday.
• Another video, shot outside another hospital in Brooklyn, showed bodies lined up on gurneys to be put into another refrigerated truck.
• As of Monday night, there have been 914 coronavirus deaths in New York City alone. It has become a new epicenter of the outbreak.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A shocking video shows how one Brooklyn hospital became so inundated with coronavirus victims that they used a forklift to transfer the bodies into the back of a refrigerated truck being used as a temporary morgue.

The video was posted on Facebook on Sunday by a person named John Lee, who said the footage "may make you want to take this serious."

"They're putting the bodies into an 18-wheeler," Lee says, as he filmed the scene outside Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene. "Please stay inside, this is for real."

He adds: "This is for real, this is real, this is right here in Brooklyn."

A similar video was uploaded to YouTube on the same day, and shows a line of gurneys holding bodies, waiting on the curb outside another Brooklyn hospital - Maimonides Medical Center - before being dragged onto another refrigerated truck.

The person who took the video, who appears to be a hospital worker due to his medical garb, can be heard saying: "This is ridiculous... There's a truck that we're gonna put the f---ing bodies in, bro."

He then opens up the back of the truck and gestures to the back, saying: "There's bodies up there, piling up."

That video has been shared by many, including the rapper Ice-T. The version Ice-T posted appears to have an additional clip at the end, showing a body being dragged onto the truck.

Maimonides Medical Center issued a statement to the New York Daily News, saying it "regrets that anyone was able to obtain video of this nature."

"We're working very hard to provide accurate accounts of all the good work being done to care for COVID patients, and the stories of many people who have recovered and gone home," the spokesperson said.

The Brooklyn Hospital Center also responded to the first video, telling Patch that their workers were "following protocols established by public health officials."

The spokesperson went on to explain that the refrigerated truck is serving as an ancillary morgue "needed to accommodate the tragic spike in deaths, placing a strain on the entire system of care - from hospitals to funeral homes."

"Grieving families cannot quickly make arrangements, and their loved ones who have passed are remaining in hospitals longer, thus the need for this accommodation. We ask our community to be respectful during this time as we remain-more than ever-committed to Keeping Brooklyn Healthy," the statement said.

As of Monday, 914 people had died of COVID-19 in New York City, a jump of 138 over the previous day.

And the worst is yet to come - New York State's coronavirus outbreak isn't expected to peak until April 9, according to one estimate from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

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