Hard hit southern California to receive 5,000 body bags and 60 morgue trucks

Hospitalizations in the state are double the summertime peak seen earlier in the pandemic, threatening to overwhelm the system

California is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues in anticipation of a surge of coronavirus deaths.

The precautions come from hospitalizations that now are double the summertime peak seen earlier in the pandemic, and which threaten to soon overwhelm the state's already taxed hospital system.