VA health system has ordered $300,000 worth of body bags for COVID-19 victims

More than 8,500 U.S. Veterans Administration patients have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and nearly 500 have died.

The VA health network has ordered $300,000 worth of body bags, @ reports, as a growing number of veterans are hit by Covid-19, Betsy Woodruff Swan reports for POLITICO.

Here's the contracting document reviewed by POLITICO. [usaspending.gov]

The department ordered the body bags from a major contractor called ISO Group because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the site. The contract was made on April 15."

Excerpt:

The purchase came as the VA has seen a growing number of deaths due to the pandemic. More than 8,500 VA patients have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and nearly 500 have died, according to data on the department's website Thursday morning. The number of confirmed cases has grown by 3,000 since the contract was inked on April 15.

The contract did not say how many body bags the department was buying, and it is unclear if the VA bought them because it expects a spike in patient deaths or because it plans to redistribute them to others who may need them. VA spokespersons did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration recently paid $5.1 million for 100,000 body bags, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal--coming out to a price of about $51 per bag. If the VA paid the same rate, it would have purchased nearly 6,000 bags--a number 12 times larger than the number of VA patients who have died from the disease.

But some retailers sell body bags for lower prices; BodyBagStore.com sells them for as little as $16.80, but limits on how many bags an individual customer can buy. And on Amazon, one vendor sells body bags for under $15.

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VA orders $300,000 worth of body bags