New 'surge center' opened to accommodate COVID-19 deaths in Cook County

To accommodate COVID-19 deaths, the Cook County medical examiner's office has opened a surge center to ease overcrowding at hospital morgues, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Thursday.

Located five miles from the medical examiner's Chicago office, the 66,000-square foot refrigerated facility will hold more than 2,000 decedents, Preckwinkle said in a prepared statement.

The Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security acquired 14 refrigerated trailers and is working to secure six more. Those trailers will be positioned at hospitals experiencing surges in COVID-19 deaths to ensure their morgues are not overwhelmed, according to the statement.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar said her office will "scale up their existing case management system to accommodate" the expected surge.

"We are the last physicians these individuals will ever have and we take that responsibility very seriously," Arunkumar said. "We treat these patients with dignity and respect. We treat them the way we would want our loved ones to be treated."