The mayor of Trenton and New Jersey state police say that at least 18 bodies of deceased individuals had to be removed from a funeral home because the staff could not keep up with the number of dead.

“I don’t think there was any wrongdoing or criminal intent. It was just that this is a problem for nursing homes and funerals homes in the state,” says Mayor Reed Gusciora.

Trenton 

The deceased at Anderson Funeral Home were COVID-19 victims, according to the mayor.

“The funeral parlors are getting a lot of bodies from family members and they can’t process them, embalm them and have the funeral itself. That’s been problematic,” the mayor says.

 

Mayor Gusciora says there is nothing criminal about what happened. He also says funeral homes need to be reminded Gov. Phil Murphy set up three overflow morgues located in north, central, and south Jersey regions.

Nursing homes in Trenton were also hit hard by the virus – at least 20 of the people in the city who died form COVID-19 were in nursing homes.

The virus itself is causing economic hardship in the city. Trenton has had to take out a $10 million loan to pay its employees because of the one-month tax postponement.

On a positive note – the curfew that Gusciora implemented after the statewide state-at-home order was put into place had led to a significant drop in crime in the city compared to one year ago.

Gusciora says that he will be following Gov. Phil Murphy’s’ six-part plan of reopening the state with his city leaders to decide how and when businesses in Trenton can reopen.