ST. LOUIS — The City of St. Louis has set up a temporary morgue "out of an abundance of caution" that would hold about the bodies of 50 people.
"We don't need it right now and we hope that we never need it," St. Louis Mayor Krewson said during a briefing Friday on Facebook Live.
The temporary morgue is set up on land donated by St. Louis Cremation near the corner of Chouteau and Papin Street.
Mayor Krewson hopes that will also be the case, the second time around.
"I hope, you know, in a month or two months or three months, somebody saying to me, 'Well, why did you waste the money on that?' Because I'll be happy that, you know, if that is the situation, that we don't need it," she said.
The city's permanent morgue holds about 60 people, Krewson said.
The city reported 25 deaths related to the coronavirus in November, compared to May when there were 65 deaths.
"Early on, many more people were dying of COVID," Krewson said. "And of course, the treatments have been are better now."
According to the city's dashboard, there have been 10 COVID-19-related deaths from Nov. 17 - 30.
When asked about the potential for a morgue in St. Louis County, officials recently told 5 On Your Side they are assessing the situation but there are no plans to construct a morgue.
The county's morgue was originally proposed by the regional health systems, including BJC Health, SSM Health and Mercy Hospital and regional governments granted the health systems’ request.
It opened in April and closed in August. Though it had space for 1,300 bodies, there were never more than 60 at a time.
